Bourj Hammoud to London
Onto blog #4! Honestly, the feedback has been far better than I could’ve imagined. I thank you sincerely for that! The number of readers have been growing with every blog and people have started asking me what the next one’s going to be about. Luckily, I haven’t run out of stories just yet!
A story about quite the journey, from a little town just outside of Beirut, to the capital of the world. A musical journey, unlike most you’ve heard; one that’s definitely still in the making! Had someone told me 5 years ago from today that I would end up moving to London and studying at the Royal College of Music, I would’ve seriously considered taking them to a mental health clinic. And yet, life did its magic again…
I started playing the guitar (that would probably be an overstatement) when I got one as a gift from my aunt on my 6th birthday. It’s important to understand here, that in a country like Lebanon, music and art in general aren’t considered more than a hobby; a past-time activity. As their famous saying goes, art doesn’t feed you bread {art doesn’t earn you a living}. That’s also probably the only reason why I was sent to a music school; to pick up a hobby! If I tell you I knew I wanted to pursue this as a career the first time I ever held the guitar, I’d be lying. That wasn’t the case for a very long time.
At the age of around 12, I started taking practicing a bit more seriously and I was soon getting noticed by other teachers and guitarists in the school. To my surprise, I was offered to study with the Head of the Guitar faculty, Megerdich Mikayelian. That should’ve been one of the proudest moments of my childhood! With him I studied for over six years, and those were the years I fell in love with the instrument and music in general. But still, despite all the opportunities I was getting, doing it for a living wasn’t in the picture. How could it be? I hadn’t seen anyone do it before except for my guitar teacher some two decades ago.
A very important character in this story is my brother. See, I’m blessed to have an older musician brother who’s a fantastic violinist (currently playing with the Amman Chamber Orchestra). At the time I was still in school, he was doing a degree in Nursing, only because family and friends all wanted him to have a “back-up” degree in case music didn’t turn out well for him. By some miracle, however, he had managed to convince my parents that he would quit his current course and study music in Armenia! What a fabulous turn of events for yours truly! My brother had paved a way to the journey I really wanted to embark on. At this point I was still in school, with quite a handful trying to juggle both high school and music school at once. I also got a First Prize at a major music competition in Gyumri, Armenia, that strongly backed my case that this was what I wanted to do for a living.
Exactly a year before I graduated high school and music school, however, life took another turn. At this point my day was sitting in a classroom for 8 hours, coming back home and practicing for some 3 hours on an endless loop! Due to all this sitting and not much exercise going on, I had developed a very serious back injury. I practically couldn’t walk at all for two months. That was definitely an interesting summer! I ended up getting all sorts of (pretty high-risk) treatments and lost around 25 kilograms. Honestly, I hardly recall anything from these two months but I’m pretty sure I lost all hope in a future that involved the guitar.
How I got back to practicing after all that still remains a mystery even for myself. I remember experimenting with six different chairs, different sitting cushions that would take the pressure off my spine, and one of them must’ve worked I guess! A year later, in 2019, I finished high school, graduation music school with highest distinction, packed up and joined my brother in Armenia to study at the State Conservatory.
I remember telling myself, “Here I am in Armenia! I couldn’t possibly ask for anything more?” And yet again, I was very wrong…
To be continued… :)
