Vardan

I have devoted this most recent recording to dance. The pieces that I perform here are all linked to the art of dance from different eras and different cultures.Throughout history and in most people's perception, dance has always been a source of entertainment and joy, but it can also represent more sombre occasions, with pomp and grandeur.The Chaconne, for example, has become both tragic and sublime over time and today it's rhythm has mellowed!Chopin's Mazurkas can be rustic and folkloric, haunting or lyrical, even dramatic. In short, dance can express diametric opposites and unite those opposites at the same time.That's why I also want to pay homage to Shiva's dance, for this god, the symbol of destruction, illusion and ignorance, destroys in order to awaken human beings and lead them to create a new world.Shiva's divine dance, Tandava Nritya, is regarded by Hinduism as the origin of the cycle of creation, preservation and devastation.Vagharshapat Dance is based upon a melody from 'Yerangi' found in "Six Dances for Piano" (1906) by the legendary Armenian composer Komitas (1869-1935).

A travers l’histoire d’une amitié adolescente, Makine révèle dans ce véritable bijou de littérature classique un épisode inoubliable de sa jeunesse.
Le narrateur, treize ans, vit dans un orphelinat de Sibérie à l’époque de l’empire soviétique finissant. Dans la cour de l’école, il prend la défense de Vardan, un adolescent que sa pureté, sa maturité et sa fragilité désignent aux brutes comme bouc-émissaire idéal. …

The Armenian monk Soghomon Soghomonian, better known by his priest’s name of Komitas, collected hundreds of folksongs around 1900 during the course of his travels through the Armenian highlands between Van Lake, the Black Sea and the southern Caucasus. These songs, handed down orally over the centuries, express all the archaism of this ancient people’s unmistakeable culture – a culture than was nearly extinguished in the genocide of the Armenians during the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917…

Hamasyan's ability to blend so many musical influences makes New Era stand out from the flood of new CDs.Ken Dryden, allaboutjazz.com

Peter Erskine’s latest album, Joy Luck, showcases the drummer’s new trio, and a family connection. Peter’s nephew Damian Erskine joins his uncle for the first time on an album. Dubbed the Peter Erskine New Trio, the group also includes pianist Vardan Ovsepian. The album features original compositions by each of the trio’s members, and is a release the band describes as combining “the strength of experience with the vitality of youth”.