Gurdjieff Ensemble

Armenian musicians

The critically acclaimed Gurdjieff Ensemble consists of leading Armenian musicians playing traditional Armenian and Middle Eastern instruments. Levon Eskenian founded the ensemble to play 'ethnographically authentic' arrangements of the piano music of GI Gurdjieff/Thomas de Hartmann. The ensemble then expanded its repertoire to include music by Komitas, music from the Middle East, ancient and medieval Armenian folk and spiritual music, troubadour songs from the Caucasus and works collected by Bartók. But also compositions by contemporary composers.

Their debut album, 'Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff' and 'Komitas' on the famous ECM Records, were critically acclaimed and won prestigious awards, including an Edison. The ensemble performs from Europe to Australia, from the Holland Festival to the Chicago World Music Festival.

Zartir

Last October, the Gurdjieff Ensemble released a new album: 'Zartir'. 'Zartir' means 'awakening from your royal slumber'. It is the song title by Paghtasar Dpir, a 17th-century Armenian poet and musician. The album contains, among other things, new arrangements of culturally important songs from three centuries: by the Armenian poet and musician Paghtasar Dpir (seventeenth century), by the 'ashoughs' (troebadours) Sayat Nova (eighteenth century), and by Jivani (nineteenth century).