Middle Eastern Festival Sponsors: Office of External Affairs, Professional Performance
Division, Office for Diversity and Inclusion, Office of Faculty Development, and
Mediterranean Music Institute.

Thank you

Roger H. Brown, President

Tom Riley, Vice President, External Affairs

Mirek Vana, Global Development Officer, Institutional Advancement
Matthew Nicholl, Associate Vice President, Global Initiatives

Matt Marvuglio, Dean, Performance Division

Ron Savage, Chair, Ensemble Department

Anne Peckham, Chair, Voice Department

Roya Hu, Director, Faculty Development

Kevin Johnson, Director, Diversity and Inclusion

Production Team

Inna Dudukina, Production and Music Assistant, Rehearsal Pianist, Music Preparation
Dana Protsenko, Assistant/Coordinator

Guy Bernfeld, Maxime Cholley, Rhythm Section Coordinators

Christina Azarian, Language Consultant, Administrative Assistant, Rehearsal Pianist
Layth Sidiq, String Quartet Coordinator

Rohith Jayaraman, Assistant Choral Coordinator

Alejo Planchart, Stage Crew

Reggie Lofton, Video Services

Cathy Horn, Tim Paul Weiner, Concert Office

Tigran Hamasyan

Known for melding jazz, folk, progressive rock, and classical forms,
Armenian pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan has established himself
as one of the most innovative artists of his age. He has received an
impressive number of accolades, including the top piano award at the
2013 Montreux Jazz Festival and the grand prize at the 2006 Thelonious
Monk International Jazz Piano Competition at age 19. In 2015, Hamasyan
won the Paul Acket Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival. The following year, he earned
the Echo Jazz Award (the German Grammy) for International Instrumentalist of the Year,
Piano, for his album Mockroot. Hamasyan's latest album, An Ancient Observer, will be
released later this month. It will be his second solo album for Nonesuch Records, and his
eighth overall as a leader.

Conceptually, An Ancient Observer is a poignant album focusing on the art of observing.
“It's something that humans have been practicing for ages, sometimes even subliminally,”
Hamasyan says. “It's the feeling of the ancient eternal and impermanent versus the present-
day eternal and impermanent. The intertwining of the ancient and the modern worlds



creates an existential feeling. This album is presenting the observation of the world we live in
now and the weight of our history we carry on our shoulders, which is influencing us even if
we don't realize it. This album is the observation of influences and experiences I've had.”