The music festival will hold two concerts at Greystone Mansion and Gardens. (photo courtesy of the city of Beverly Hills)

On April 24 and 25 at 7 p.m., the Beverly Hills International Music Festival will host concerts at Greystone Mansion and Gardens. Programming will highlight classical music with world-renowned performers and commemorate the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide.

The festival began in 2004 as a dual performance and educational event. Founded by Ukrainian conductor and violinist Gregory Cherninsky, the festival initially featured two-week master classes for young musicians and industry professionals from around the world. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, however, festival organizers were forced to cancel the event, and funding challenges have made it impossible to hold the event in the years since.

The festival’s new director Veronica Bell is hoping to return the festival to its former glory, beginning this year with the concert series at Greystone Mansion.

The concert on April 24 will recognize the 80th anniversary of the Buchenwald concentration camp liberation, which took place in April 1945. The concert also falls on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Bell said it was important to commemorate both events through the power of music – a statement of “resistance through art.”

“This is what artists do,” Bell said. “This phrase that I’ve heard many times, ‘shut up and sing,’ or ‘shut up and play,’ it doesn’t happen in the real world. Artists usually take a stand when they see the world turning the wrong direction … The undercurrent of oppression is still going on, and as humans, I believe as artists, we need to make sure that nobody ever forgets what happened.”

The April 24 concert will feature emotional and uplifting compositions by Nicola Piovani, John Williams and Armenian composers Arno Babajanian and Aram Khachaturian. The pieces will be performed by the Shell Piano Trio – consisting of a pianist, violinist and cellist.

“Our language is music, which is universal,” pianist Shushana Hakobyan said. “We want to tell the truth and send our message to people, and talk to their hearts through the music.”

Hakobyan believes strongly in the uniting power of music. Originally from Armenia, she has raised funds for displaced people in Artsakh and founded a group called Music For Unity to promote peace.

On April 25, the Sords-Walz-Durkovic Piano Trio will perform romantic compositions by Johannes Brahms, Atnonín Dvořák and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Bell described it as an educational concert for attendees to learn about lesser-known facts – perhaps even scandalous stories – about the well-known composers.

“[Brahms, Dvořák and Rachmaninoff] had extramarital affairs. The compositions were to a large degree influenced by the turmoil in their personal lives,” Bell said. “We tell the story of composers and compositions and what’s happened behind the scenes.”

Tickets for the Beverly Hills International Music Festival are $55 and available at bhimf.com.

Greystone Mansion and Gardens is located at 905 Loma Vista Drive.