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Lernazang Ensemble

About this Artist

Lernazang Ensemble is Armen Adamian (duduk), Haik Adamian (dhol), Areni Agbabian (voice), Gabriel Lavin (oud), and Naghme Sarang (kamancha), with dances led by Natalie Kamajian. Founded by a group of musicians, dancers, and ethnomusicologists, Lernazang is a creative attempt at realizing Armenian folk culture through a decolonial aesthetic. Playing folk instruments characteristic of the region, the ensemble is committed to preserving a performance practice informed by the rich musical practices local to Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus.

A unique acoustic experience by the timbres of oud, duduk, kamanche, dhol, and vocals, Lernazang employs modalism to yield an inextricable heterophonic texture. The ensemble hopes to revive monodic musical traditions which were developed in the ceremonial and expressive lives of pre-modern societies. In this event, Lernazang’s performance will have a basis in Armenian ethnographic dance, a genre of dance whose sonic and embodied forms are direct constituents of Armenian rural culture.