18.30
KAMMERSALEN
Eric Peterson med elever fra elektronisk musikk.
19.00
Mariam Kharatyan, Alessandra Bossa & Vigen Balasanyan: RE-CREATION
Reinterpreting Armenian folk and medieval music through Improvisations and Live Electronics
Mariam Kharatyan, piano
Vigen Balasanyan, duduk, blul
Alessandra Bossa, live electronics, voice
Arrangementet er gratis
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The "Re-Creation" takes its departure from an innovative and experimental approach into re-interpreting the Armenian folk and spiritual music, and creating new music that springs each performers’ identity and individual artistry, unfolding new musical possibilities through improvisations on piano, folk instruments duduk and blul with live electronics.
In this performance session the three sound worlds - the classical piano played by Mariam Kharatyan, Armenian folk instruments duduk and blul played by Vigen Balasanyan, and live electronics - sampling/remix and voice by Alessandra Bossa will be in interplay, opening artistic opportunities for a new meaning and perspective into the interpretation of traditional melodies. In a live co-creative process, a new contemporary music will emerge through experimentations of multidisciplinary mediums and the synthesis of them, and as a result of the three performers’ exploration on crossroads of traditions and innovation.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Armenian folk and spiritual songs will be played from different centuries, carefully selected as an anchor of the project, and further taking the listeners to a musical journey of rethinking, translating, recreating, and reinterpreting this traditional music from the past through improvisations and live sampling/remixing live in the moment.
Vasn Meroy Prkutean (For Our Salvation) by Anania Shirakaci in 7th century and Havun, Havun (Bird, Bird) by Grigor Narekatsi, in 10th century, and Nor tsaghik (New Flower) by Nerses Shnorhali, in 12th century are among some of the most important and unique examples of tagher – the sacred hymns of spiritual music of medieval times.
Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935) – an Armenian ethnomusicologist, composer, conductor, and performer collected and written down from peasant sources thousands of Armenian songs and dance music. The folk lyrical love songs Matniqy Matovs Cher (The Ring Misfit My Finger), Tun Ari (Come Home), Qeler, Tsoler (He Walked Shining), and Kanche Krunk (Call, Crane)– a pilgrim song, and Akna Oror (Lullaby from Akn) among other peasant folk songs will be played.
Akna Oror/Lullaby from Akn
Vasn Meroy Prkutean (For Our Salvation), Anania Shirakaci, 7th century
Havun, Havun (Bird, Bird), Grigor Narekatsi, 10th century
Nor tsaghik (New Flower), Nerses Shnorhali, 12th century
Komitas, 20th century
Mani Asem, Tsaghik Asem, Matniqy Matovs Cher (I will Sing My Song, I will Say Flower, The Ring Misfit My Finger)
Tun Ari (Come Home)
Qeler, Tsoler (He Walked Shining)
Chinar Es (You Are a Plane Tree)
Kanche Krunk /Call, Crane)
BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTISTS
ALESSANDRA BOSSA, LIVE ELECTRONICS, VOICE. (PhD candidate at the Faculty of Arts, University of Agder)
Guided by intuition, exploration, and curiosity, with her roots in classical and contemporary traditions, Alessandra Bossa has embraced the possibilities of electronic music and performance art. Unfolding her unique sonic world through improvisation, creative use of devices and processing of live signals, Alessandra bridges avant-garde, jazz and remixing.
Bossa has gathered recognition with her performances at festivals such as Casa da Musica di Porto, Punkt Festival in Norway, Cully Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival at Barbican, Stockholm Jazz Festival, Bergamo Jazz, Katowice Jazz Festival, Gas Festival Göteborg and Winter Jazz Festival of Copenhagen.
After releasing the album Inland Images, Alessandra Bossa won Nuova Generazione Jazz 2019 (MiBACT & I-JAZZ) with her electro-acoustic duo O-Janà. Bossa currently is involved in projects with Ludovico Manzo (O-Janà), Michele Rabbia, Andrina Bollinger, Llovage and Dudù Kouate.
VIGEN BALASANYAN, DUDUK, BLUL is an Armenian folk musician, performing internationally in several Armenian traditional folk instruments such as duduk, blul, shvi, pku, zurna, as well as on saxophone and clarinet. His versatile musical profile features Armenian folk, jazz, and popular music in a broad repertoire, playing as a solo artist and in the ensembles, including the Gusanakan State Ensemble of Folk instruments in Armenia.
In 2019 Vigen Balasanyan has released the album Komitas, Shoror, published in Grappa musikkforlag in the frame of pianist Mariam Kharatyan’s artistic research Ph. D project “Armenian Fingerprints”. Prior to the recording of Komitas, Shoror album, in 2018 they have performed together in Concert in the Cathedral/Domkirke in Kristiansand. Balasanyan has collaborated with numerous folk, jazz and pop music bands and has toured with concerts in USA, France, China, Vietnam, Lithuania, Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Uzbekistan, Qatar, and Lebanon.
MARIAM KHARATYAN, PIANO (Associate Professor of Arts, University of Agder)
Armenian-Norwegian pianist Mariam Kharatyan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, her playing anchored in a versatile artistic profile, bridging the tradition and innovation in crossroads of classical, folk and improvised music.
In 2020 Kharatyan has successfully defended her Ph. D. artistic research project “Armenian Fingerprints: interpreting the piano music of Komitas and Khachaturian in light of Armenian folk music” (2015-2019). In 2019 with the recital in Sentralen, Oslo, she released two albums in Simax Classics and Grappa Musikkforlag - Khachaturian, Chamber Music with violinist Adam Grüchot, cellist Leonardo Sesenna, and clarinetist, composer Stig Nordhagen. The second album Komitas, Shoror was in collaboration with Vigen Balasanyan playing on folk instruments duduk and blul.
In August 2023, together with the Opus Klassik 2022 prizewinners, the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker and conductor Mihkel Kütson, Mariam Kharatyan gave four performances of Aram Khachaturian's Piano Concerto in the opening concerts of the new season. The concerts took place in the Seidenweberhaus, the Konzertsaal Theather Mönchengladbach, and the Kaiser-Friedrich-Halle in Krefeld and Mönchengladbach in Germany and received enthusiastic reviews in the Rheinische Post and Westdeutsche Zeitung.
Kharatyan has performed concerts in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Cyprus, Lithuania, the USA, and Armenia.
Currently Kharatyan is Associate Professor at the Department for Classical Music and Music Education at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway.