Djivan Gasparyan (var. Jivan Gasparyan;Armenian: Ջիվան Գասպարյան, Armenian pronunciation: [dʒiˈvɑn ɡɑspɑɾˈjɑn]; born October 12, 1928) is an Armenian musician and composer. He plays the duduk, a double reed woodwind instrument related to the orchestral oboe. Gasparyan is known as the Master of the duduk.
Born in Solag, Armenia, Gasparyan started to play duduk when he was six. In 1948 he became a soloist of the Armenian Song and Dance Popular Ensemble and the Yerevan Philarmonic Orchestra. He has won four medals at UNESCO worldwide competitions (1959, 1962, 1973, and 1980). In 1973 Gasparyan was awarded the honorary title People's Artist of Armenia and in 2002, he received the WOMEX (World Music Expo) Lifetime Achievement Award. A professor at the Yerevan State Musical Conservatory, he has instructed and nurtured many performers to professional levels of performance in duduk.
He has toured the world several times with a small ensemble playing Armenian folk music. He has collaborated with many artists, such as Hossein Alizadeh, Sting, Erkan Ogur, Michael Brook, Peter Gabriel, Brian May, Lionel Richie, Derek Sherinian, Ludovico Einaudi, Boris Grebenshchikov, David Sylvian, Hans Zimmer and Andreas Vollenweider.
Hossein Alizadeh (Persian: حسین علیزاده), is an Iranian composer,radif-preserver, researcher, teacher, and tar and setar instrumentalist and improviser, described by Allmusic as a leading Iranian classical composer and musician.
He has made numerous recording with prominent musicians including Shajarian, Nazeri, Khaladj, and Gasparyan, and is a member of the Musical group, Masters of Persian Music.
Alizadeh was born in 1951 in Tehran to Azeri and Persian parents. He graduated from the music conservatory in 1975 and entered the school of fine arts in the University of Tehran where he studied composition and Persian music. He continued his education at the Berlin University of the Arts in composition and musicology. He studied with various masters of Traditional Persian Music such as Houshang Zarif, Ali Akbar Shahnazi, Nur-Ali Borumand, Mahmoud Karimi, Abdollah Davami, Yusef Forutan, and Sa'id Hormozi. From these masters he learned the radif of Persian classical music.
He plays the tar and setar, and has recently derived the sallaneh and shurangiz from the ancient Persian lute barbat.
Sayat-Nova (Armenian: Սայաթ-Նովա; Persian: سید نوا; Azerbaijani: سید نوا / Səyyad Nova; Georgian: საიათ-ნოვა) (born as Harutyun Sayatyan (Armenian: Հարություն Սայադյան on 14 June 1712, Tiflis – died 22 September 1795, Haghpat), was an Armenianpoet, musician and ashik who had compositions in a number of languages. His adopted name Sayat Nova meant "Master of Songs" in Persian.
Sayat-Nova's mother, Sara, was born in Tbilisi, and his father, Karapet, either in Aleppo or Adana. He himself was born in Tbilisi. Sayat Nova was skilled in writing poetry, singing, and playing the kamancheh, Chonguri, Tambur. He performed in the court of Erekle II of Georgia, where he also worked as a diplomat and, apparently, helped forge an alliance between Georgia, Armenia and Shirvan against the Persian Empire. He lost his position at the royal court when he fell in love with the king's sister, and spent the rest of his life as an itinerant bard.
In 1759 he was ordained as a priest in the Armenian Apostolic Church. His wife Marmar died in 1768, leaving behind four children. He served in various locations including Tbilisi and Haghpat Monastery. In 1795 he was killed in the monastery by the invading army of Mohammad Khan Qajar, the Shah of Iran, for refusing to denounce Christianity and convert to Islam. He is buried at the Cathedral of Saint George, Tbilisi.
Michael Brook (born 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, producer, and film music composer. He plays in many genres, including rock, electronica, world music, minimalism and film scores.
He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1996 for his production work and as a co-artist on Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's album Night Song. Another notable collaboration was Sleeps with the Fishes with Clan Of Xymox member Pieter Nooten (4AD, 1987).
He toured as a member of the Sylvian and Fripp tour group, with the final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in December 1994 documented on the album Damage: Live. He also opened the concerts with a solo set, featuring the Infinite Guitar with effects and sequencer backing. In 1998, he produced the album "Volcán: Tributo a José José", a tribute album to singer Jose Jose. In 2006, the solo album RockPaperScissors was released, with an ambient remix version following in 2007. Brook toured small venues in Canada and the United States in late January/early February, 2007.
Erkan Oğur (pronounced [ˈeɾkan ˈoɰuɾ]), or Erkan Ogur in the West, (born 1954) is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976. A composer, he has influenced many musicians with his compositions combining the sounds of Turkish folk music, classical music with the ancient traditional music. He has played many concerts all over the world. He is regarded as a master of the kopuz and bağlama lutes.
Erkan Oğur was born in 1954, in Ankara, Turkey. He spent his childhood in Elazığ, eastern Turkey, where he became interested in violin and the Turkish bağlama lute, and started to practice them frequently. He graduated from high school in Elazığ, then moved to study physics at the Ankara University Faculty of Science from 1970 to 1973. As a result of encouragement to be a scientist by his father, he started to study chemical engineering and in 1974 continued his education in The Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Germany, for three years. He was introduced to guitar education in 1973. Instead of being a scientist, he chose to be a musician. Since he needed detailed sounds from a guitar in order to obtain Turkish melodies, he modified his guitar and invented the fretless classical guitar in 1976.