On 28 January 1992, by order of the Minister of Defense Vazgen Sargsyan, the 1st Airborne Regiment was formed, which also included the first military band in Armenia. On 14 September of that year, Sargsyan created the Military Band Service of the Ministry of Defense, which was removed from the Ministry of Defense's structure and transferred to the General Staff on 25 January 1996. The actual band of the general staff was formed on 25 November 1992 by the band's current director Armen Poghosyan.[2] On 2 February 2009, the service was reapproved as a military division.[3]
Events
Domestically, it cooperates with the honour guard of the Defense Ministry and has a separate branch in the battalion.[1] The band has performed in parades, tattoos, and state ceremonies, such as a joint concert between the General Staff Band and a band from the United Kingdom, honoring the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations.[1][4][5] The band has also performed in military tattoos, such as the Spasskaya Tower military tattoo in 2017.[6][7][8] The band performed as a guest contingent in the Liberation Day Parade in Stepanakert in 2012. In 2013, during his state visit to Armenia, the President of BelarusAlexander Lukashenko praised the band, including its director Armen Poghosyan for its performance of My Belarusy (the Belarusian national anthem), showing a thumbs up as a sign of gratitude and telling Poghosyan:[9] When the Band of the General Staff performed in February 2019 at the opening ceremony of IDEX 2019 in Abu Dhabi, The National (a private English-language daily newspaper based out of the United Arab Emirates) published an article describing the performance of the band and its appellant effect on the audience:[10][11][12]
"No-one was quite sure why the Armenian Military Orchestra was taking part until they started, that is. Armenia, it turns out, is a superpower in the world of military orchestras. A general fearlessly marched a gauntlet of swords slashing up and down in perfect symmetry, allowing him the pass through unharmed. An impressed Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, were pictured on big screens leading the applause"
As of January 2016, the band took part in 1,700 governmental events.[13]
Personnel
Currently, potential musicians participate in 5-year training courses at the Military Institute of Military Conductors of the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Since 2004, an agreement with the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan has been in place, under which five conductors a year were prepared for the band, which gave it the opportunity to replenish all bands with qualified personnel. Since 2019, it was decided to send musicians to study in military schools in order to receive the education of a full-fledged conductor. Citizens of a pre-draft age, as well as male citizens and military personnel who have passed or are undergoing compulsory military service (whose age does not exceed 23 years), can take part in admission to military schools. 60 percent of the band are contract soldiers, with the rest being military conscripts.[14]
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev laying a wreath at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in October 2008. Members of the band can be seen performing in the background.
First Place in the International Military Festival in Sweden (2010)
First Place in the St. Petersburg festival of military band (2008)[16]
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Armenia
Armed Forces of Armenia
