A prominent Armenian pianist, composer, awardee of numerous international competitions will release a new album “Atmospheres” with Norwegian musicians Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang.
According to Facebook post by Hamasyan, 95% of the album is improvised and it was recorded in 2 days in Lugano, Switzerland.
Hamasyan was born in Gyumri, Armenia in 1987. He began playing piano at the age of three, and started performing in festivals and competitions when he was 11 years old, winning the Montreux Jazz Festival’s piano competition in 2003. He released his debut album, World Passion, at the age of 18 in 2006. That same year he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Subsequent albums include New Era (2008), Red Hail (2009), and A Fable (2011), for which he was awarded a Victoires de la Musique (the equivalent of a Grammy Award in France). Most recently he won the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Contemporary Music in 2013.
