Tigran Hamasyan

Armenia has a strong tradition of both jazz and folk and pianist and vocalist Tigran Hamasyan – born July 17, 1987, in Leninakan, Armenian SSR - manages to combine influences from both in his original compositions. As a young music student, he studied jazz from the age of nine and soon began to meld traditional Armenian melodies with its characteristic tetrachord structures into his songwriting. Tetrachords have their origin in Greek music and use a format where the last note of a tetrachord forms the first note of the next creating a theoretically endless scale. This provides an interesting platform from which to explore jazz progressions and Tigran Hamasyan is a masterful exponent of this unique format. Since he commenced his recording career in 2006, Tigran Hamasyan has yet to find wide commercial appeal for his music, but he remains a respected jazz musician and is popular in his native Armenia. He has been the recipient of many awards throughout the years including taking First Place awards at the Jazz à Juan Révélations in the jazz instrumental category (2003), the Prix de la Critique et du Public, Concours de Piano du Montreux Jazz Festival (2003), and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (2005). His back catalog includes the releases World Passion (2006), Red Hail (2009), Shadow Theater (2013), An Ancient Observer (2017), and StandArt (2022). In 2024, he signed his first soundtrack for a video game, The Bird of a Thousand Voices.