ACTION ALERT!

This log is Martuni or Bust’s first ACTION ALERT that a non-political and non-confrontational that our readers are invited to get involved with. It’s one of those issues that will help our people to learn how to fish for themselves and also bring to rise our talent that will one day represent the Armenian nation in the international cultural arena.

I encourage you to read this log to the end and then get involved in anyway you can, even in ways which I may have neglected to suggest.


Mr. Nobody… talent working towards being discovered

Armenia is flooded with talent, some better than others. Sometimes the less talented have connections and money behind them to move forward, while the real talents in too many cases don’t.

A year ago, my wife made friends with a very charismatic and talented young man named Nick (see pictures of Nick in my log "Italian Comedy in Armenia").

Nick was born with music running through his soul and entire being his mother once told me. One of those gifts from God I guess. He has been playing the piano since the age of 2, his first song he played was the Armenian National Anthem, which he preformed early one morning after hearing it on the radio, waking his parents from their sleep.

Nick is the youngest and only boy child in his family. He was born to parents who were already advanced in age, Nick being born when his mother was in her late 40’s, and just before her eldest daughter gave birth to Nick’s nephew.

Nick was the apple of his father’s eye and everything his father did from the day Nick was born to the day he passed away suddenly from a stroke was for Nick.

Nick’s father, the director of a large food warehouse, during the Artsakh liberation movement was allocating supplies to be sent to Artsakh for the people there who were literally starving. He ended up having to repay the financial deficit from his life savings and by selling almost everything they had, after some unscrupulous individuals who are now very well to do no doubt thanks to what they sold instead of sending off to Artsakh, left Nick’s father high and dry.

This whole experience took its toll on Nick’s father’s health, who a few years later died almost penniless, fighting a court case he had filed against the persons who misappropriated the goods from his warehouse.

Nick attended school at the acclaimed Tchaikovsky music conservatory in Yerevan, where he graduated at the top of his class.

Last year he was admitted to the Gomidas State Music Conservatory, having the top score of all the classical vocal applicants, thus winning a full scholarship, which was the only way Nick and his mother could afford to allow him to attend.

When I first saw Nick it was on a videotape my wife (fiancé at the time) had filmed one day when she took her class by surprise showing up with a video camera.

Without having any time to practice, Nick began to play song after song that he composed the music and wrote the lyrics for in English. One of the songs he wrote and preformed as the camera was going. All I could do is watch with my mouth open, thinking that this kid who was 17 at the time and had already written and composed over 100 songs was going to go places and become one of our talents that we will all be proud of.

Nick is now in his second year at the conservatory and has decided that he is ready to be “discovered” and is going to work on recording a few of his songs, from which he will compile a demo to send around.

I’m going to be doing my part and let Nick use my laptop, my wife’s Yamaha synthesizer that has a midi connection, some program that we will pick up at the local disk store for 1,500 drams (which is probably worth $500), a pair of headphones and his incredible talent to compile his original songs. Once that is done, we will rent studio time so he can record the vocals, or maybe I’ll ask my friend Arthur Ispirian if he can help us out with the use of his studio (which I’m sure he will since he has openly offered on television his help and use of studio at no charge to talented artist who are just starting out).

From all his songs, Nick will use his creative talents and put together a demo, which we will send around and also make available on a website for all to hear.


Now here is the action alert part of this log and what you can do to help this very talented young man that we have to make sure gets "discovered."

If there is anyone out there who has connections with people in the music industry, or knows someone that does, please e-mail me so we can make sure they get a copy of the demo.

Though I have no problem with letting Nick use my laptop all he wants, I know that creative people work best when they are inspired and not when you give them their scheduled time to sit behind a computer. For this, I would like to gift this young talent the needed tools to fish and not have him wait for someone to lend him a fishing pole. A computer and peripheral needed to compose and create to his hearts content when he is truly inspired will be the greatest help we can offer him at this stage in his life. Keep in mind that any financial help you offer will go through our non-profit organization and those living in the United States can deduct your gift to the maximum amount allowed by the IRS.

And finally, as I stated at the beginning of this log, if there is anything that you think will help Nick with his quest to become the best at what God intended him to be, please tell us and we can see how to fit what you have to offer into the overall equation.