Khazic Songs (2024-ongoing)
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About: 
A song cycle and accompanying research website that addresses themes of displacement, resilience, and cultural continuity through a mostly-forgotten Armenian music notation system called khaz. Written for a new group of musicians versed across Armenian modal traditions, improvisation, and Western notation, the project’s ensemble includes Armen Adamian (Armenian woodwinds), Antranig Kzirian (oud), Niloufar Shiri (kamancha), and JP Merz (viola & electronics). The songs feature the Western Armenian poetry of Tenny Arlen and additional texts selected with the assistance of Dr. Jesse Arlen (Zohrab Center). Rather than “authentically” interpreting khaz, a system historically open to interpretation, Khazic Songs mobilizes the symbols as both a contemporary notational device and a metaphor of loss and possibility.

Commissioned with support from the 2024-25 Gulbenkian Foundation արդ եւս|in view grant.