14th Annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival: Tigran Hamasyan Trio Meets Pletenitsa
When:
Tuesday, Nov 15, 2022 8:00p -
10:30p
Tuesday, Nov 15, 2022 8:00p -
10:30p
Where:
Berklee Performance Center
136 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Admission:
$15-20 advance / $20-25 day of show
Hosted by:
Categories:
Music
Event website:
https://www.berklee.edu/BPC/events/14th-annual-berklee-middle-eastern-festival-tigran-hamasyan-trio-meets-pletenitsa
The Signature Series at Berklee presents the 14th Annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival: The Tigran Hamasyan Trio Meets Pletenitsa. The concert will feature Hamasyan’s new project, StandArt, as well as a collaboration with the Pletenitsa Balkan Choir, which will premiere material arranged by Hamasyan.
Nonesuch Records released pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan’s album StandArt—his first album of American standards—in April 2022. StandArt includes songs from the 1920s through the 1950s by Richard Rodgers, Charlie Parker, Jerome Kern, David Raksin, and others. It also includes a piece that Hamasyan improvised with his bandmates—bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Justin Brown—along with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, who is featured on two of the album’s tracks. Other special guests include saxophonist and label-mate Joshua Redman on Charlie Parker’s “Big Foot,” as well as saxophonist Mark Turner on Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s “All the Things You Are.” Produced by Hamasyan and recorded last spring in Los Angeles, StandArt is Hamasyan’s first release of American music, having previously only released original compositions and traditional Armenian music.
The Pletenitsa Balkan Choir was founded by Christiane Karam in 2011 as a means to explore the choral traditions and folk music adaptations of the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus, as well as parts of the Mediterranean. The choir includes and welcomes singers from all over the world and serves as a platform for cultural exchange and an opportunity to come together and celebrate the beauty and spirit that connects us all. Pletenitsa has performed to rave reviews in Boston and New York and has shared the stage with the likes of Zulal, Juliana Svetlichnya, Mario Frangoulis, José Mercé, Javier Limón, Binka Dobreva, and Tigran Hamasyan.
The Berklee Annual Middle Eastern Festival is a celebrated annual event that brings together artists from the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean with students from all over the world to learn and experience the musical traditions of those regions. It is produced and directed by Karam.
