Terence Blanchard's UpSwing Series
Mar 21, 2025
Miner Auditorium
Jazz’s international reach means that American musicians often find passionate and knowledgeable audiences overseas, but the music has also settled in far-flung lands, leading to exquisite and unexpected hybrids. Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan embodies the way that jazz’s fertilization with traditions unconnected by African diasporic roots can lead to startlingly powerful new forms. Taking full advantage of Miner Auditorium’s immersive media system, he presents his expansive new transmedia project, The Bird of a Thousand Voices, joined by an outstanding trio.
His extraordinary albums document his ever-deepening engagement with Armenian folk music, and The Bird of a Thousand Voices takes his artistry to a new plateau. A reimagining of Hazaran Blbul, an ancient Armenian tale concerning a mythical bird whose songs bring harmony to the world, the work is a collaboration between the pianist, Dutch director Ruben Van Leer, and visual artist Boris Acket combining kinetic sculpture, film projections, and elaborate lighting with Hamasyan’s spellbinding music.
Winning the Montreux Jazz Festival piano competition at age 16 and the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition at 19, Hamasyan is one of his generation’s most celebrated pianists and a composer with an achingly beautiful body of compositions unlike anything else in contemporary music.
Taking full advantage of Miner Auditorium’s immersive media system, Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan presents his expansive new transmedia project, The Bird of a Thousand Voices, joined by an outstanding quintet featuring the remarkable vocalist Areni Agbabian.
A mature and great and rich and deep artist.
Chick Corea on Tigran Hamasyan
A mature and great and rich and deep artist.
Chick Corea on Tigran Hamasyan
Personnel
Tigran Hamasyan piano, vocals, synths
Yessaï Karapetian electronics, synth
Marc Karapetian electric bass, vocals
Matt Garstka drums
With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements … Hamasyan travels musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing, and ancient melodies. You’ll hear nothing else like this
NPR Music
Personnel
Tigran Hamasyan piano, vocals, synths
Yessaï Karapetian electronics, synth
Marc Karapetian electric bass, vocals
Matt Garstka drums
With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements … Hamasyan travels musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing, and ancient melodies. You’ll hear nothing else like this
NPR Music
Watch & Listen
Tigran Hamasyan
Only the One Who Brought the Bird Can Make It Sing
Tigran Hamasyan
Areg and Manushak (He Saw Her Reflection in the Water)
Tigran Hamasyan
Only the One Who Brought the Bird Can Make It Sing
Tigran Hamasyan
Areg and Manushak (He Saw Her Reflection in the Water)