FRESNO — The Tigran Hamasyan Trio will perform in concert at 7:30PM on Monday, March 25, 2024, in the Concert Hall on the Fresno State campus. Jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan will be accompanied by Evan Marien on bass and Arthur Hnatek on drums. The Concert, part of the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concert Series, is co-sponsored by the Armenian Studies Program of Fresno State, the Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation, the Armenian General Benevolent Union Greater Fresno Chapter, the Helen Zevart Peterson Armenian Fund and Fresno State Jazz Studies.
Award-winning artist Hamasyan fuses potent jazz improvisation with the rich folkloric heritage of Armenia. Born in Gyumri, Armenia, in 1987, Tigran grew up in a household that was full of music—his father more of a rock fan while his uncle was a huge jazz buff. When he was just a toddler, Tigran gravitated to tape players and the piano instead of regular childhood toys, and by the time he was 3, he was working his way through figuring out songs on piano by the Beatles, Louis Armstrong, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Queen. His jazz tastes early on were informed by Miles Davis’s fusion period, and then around the age of 10 when his family moved to Yerevan, he came to discover the classic jazz songbook under the aegis of his teacher Vahag Hayrapetyan, who had studied with Barry Harris. “That’s when I understood what jazz is,” Tigran says. “He taught me about bebop. He was a great teacher.”
Tigran’s music marks a daring interplay of extremes where the slamming intensity of high energy contemporary groove-metal meets the celestial-bound melodies and metrically-complex folk music traditions largely sourced from his Armenian heritage.
“He’s the hottest pianist in jazz, and he likes to mix things up, whether it’s bebop, thrash metal, or dubstep. But his heart is in the folk music of his native land, Armenia” (The Guardian, London).
General tickets for the Concert are available for $40 per person general admission, $30 per person for seniors, and students $5 per person. Tickets may be purchased online at the following website: http://www.keyboardconcerts.com/ or at the door.
