Biography

CONTACT info for Arshak Sirunyan:
info@arshaksirunyan.com
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Other Projects: "Journal" (2010)
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/arshakJ/


Hoodman's Blind [2014]
Click Here for Digital Booklet with the full story.

This album is inspired by medieval times when life was experienced in the rawness of the moment, in the daily living of life, of love, of war, of victory and of loss. Sensations were vivid, with the smells of the day up one's nose, or the gore of battle on one's skin, all immediate and pungent.

A thematic element of my story is the game of 'Hoodman's Blind,' a precursor to the game we know today as 'Blindman's Bluff.' In medieval times, it was a rough fray where the person who was 'it' had the hood of his garment turned around to obscure his vision. Other players would spin him around to disorient him. It was his goal to capture someone else and make them take a turn at being 'it,' all while fending off the torments of being shoved, tugged at, or whipped by the other players.

This game illuminates the unvarnished chafe of life in the middle ages. It was, perhaps, a preparation for the chaos the players would endure on the battlefield. The bravery and honor of soldiers who marched into the uncertainty of battle with no promise of survival holds me fascinated.

As I wrote the music for this CD, I let these ideas lead me through the development of a story. I invite you to accompany me through this tapestry of tunes that reflect a tragic tale.

Arshak Sirunyan

Biography

Born and raised in the city of Yerevan, Armenia, by the age of seven, Arshak Sirunyan’s natural musical talent had already come to the attention of Sergey Kechek, Director of the A. Spendiarov School of Music; one of the leading musical academies in Armenia. Studying under unparalleled teacher and a music mentor Arkuhi Harutyunyan, Arshak continued his study of classical piano styles for the next 10 years, performing solo concerts and going so far as to receive the third place award at the 1994 Armenian National J. S. Bach Concerto Competition. Later, he attended and graduated from Komitas State Conservatory, where he concentrated on Composition and Piano Performance under the tutelage of Stephan Rostomyan and Georgy Kasabyan. In the fallowing years Arshak has composed classical and contemporary compositions for vocal, piano, clarinet, string quartet and symphonic orchestra. In 2002, the Armenian Komitas String Quartet performed a work composed by Arshak Sirunyan that was dedicated to the victims of the earthquake that struck Armenia fourteen years earlier.

In the year of 2002, after releasing his first album “Armenian Folk Melodies” with his friend Artur Yeghiazaryan, Arshak was granted the great opportunity to come to the United States of America. In 2008 Arshak found and produced a band by name “Double Sharp“ with his two childhood friends Levon Mikaelian and Nune Vartanyan, which also includes two veterans of American jazz scene Tony Bunn and Wes Crawford. This gave a birth to the album “With a Song in My Heart“. The same year he began working on his trio album “Journal“ [Released in 2010] and Tony’s project “Small World“ [Released in 2009] with Dennis Chambers on drums. In May 2010, “Twitching Eye“ from the album “Journal” receives “Honorable Mention” from the 2010 International Songwriting Competition.

In late 2012 Arshak began working on his “Hoodman’s Blind” project collaborating with multi Grammy Award winning & nominated musicians from all over the world. Featuring Mike Stern, Omar Hakim, Eric Marienthal, Chieli Minucci, Bob Franceschini, Raul Pineda, Cheikh NDoye, John Lamkin III, Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Artyom Manukyan, Artur Yeghiazaryan, Vardanyan String Quartet & more.. The new album, released on March 2nd, 2014 was quoted on All About Jazz “..to be one of the most unique and compelling releases of the year!” winning 1st place simultaneously in TWO categories of 2014 International Songwriting Competition: track “Hoodman’s Blind” in Jazz and track “Valor & Triumph” in Instrumental. Track “Messenger” was awarded “Honorable Mention”. Meanwhile, Arshak and the project were nominated in 3 categories in the 14th Independent Music Awards: ‘Jazz Instrumental Album’, ‘Jazz Instrumental Song’ (“Hoodman’s Blind”) and ‘Music Producer’ (with Cheikh NDoye / associate producer) of the year.