“PEACE LULLABY” PROJECT ”


Sponsoring organization:
Azerbaijan University of Languages Washington International Piano Arts Council

Project Duration:
October, 2017-December, 2017

Partner organization in Hungary:
Washington International Piano Arts Council

Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide

Azerbaijan University of Languages

Project Description:
AAFSW and WIPAC, in association with Azerbaijan University of Languages, Sonmaz Mashal CRPU in Azerbaijan presented brilliant creation of forging a poem with music composition entitled “The Lullaby of Peace” in Arts Club of Washington. Haskell Small, pianist and composer, envisioned the music. Chateau Gardecki, WIPAC Chairperson and Founder, commissioned this wonderful and meaningful project. The concert featured gifted Soprano Laura Choi Stuart, pianist Haskell Small, and clarinetist Cheryl Hill and narrator Irving Benavides debuting this wonderful tribute. An Azerbaijani poem, “A Lullaby for Khojaly Kids,” written by Yusif Savalan, translated into English by Shahla Naghiyeva and edited by Shara McCallum depicts the most tragic event in the course of the Nagomo-Karabakh conflict, which took place on February 25, 1992, where many civilians including children, women and old people lost their lives. The poem was translated and edited by Shara McCallum, then set to music as “Khojaly Lullaby” by Haskell Small and worked especially for narrator with a tenor voice Irving Benavides, pianist, soprano, and clarinet.

The Aim of the Project
The main goal of the project was to provide the American community with the detailed information about Khojali massacre committed 25 years ago by Armenian aggressors killing over 600 civilians including kids, women and old people in Khojali through the universal language of music. The composed music will urge the whole mankind to struggle against wars, ensure the security of children all over the world, to create peaceful world for them, to make them smile and live happily under the clear sky.