SCA Professional Practice Series: Aram Bajakian
Thursday, February 27, 2020 | 10:30 PM 鈥� 12:20 PM | FREE
Room 4350 鈥� SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
will speak about his work as a guitarist, composer, educator and multi-disciplinary collaborator. In addition to his extensive touring and recording work, Aram is the New Music Curator at , one of Canada's leading artist run spaces for art and new music.
Biography
The music of guitarist, composer and educator Aram Bajakian has been called 鈥渁 masterpiece鈥� (fRoots, July 2017), 鈥渟hape-shifting鈥� (FreeJazzCollective, January 2017), and 鈥渁stonishing鈥� (Georgia Straight, March 2017). As an instrumentalist, Bajakian has had the privilege of performing alongside Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed, with vocalist & pianist Diana Krall, with vocalist Madeleine Peyroux, and with composer & saxophonist John Zorn. Through these tours and others, Bajakian has had the opportunity to play in many of the world鈥檚 greatest venues, including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Acropolis and L鈥橭lympia.
Bajakian鈥檚 collaboration with his wife, vocalist, actress and ethnomusicologist, Julia Ulehla, entitled D谩lava, reimagines folk songs collected over 100 years ago from a single village in Moravia by her great-grandfather. Their performances and albums have received universal critical acclaim. A 2017 fRoots magazine review said, 鈥淓very now and then an album appears that is so overwhelming and so intense that it is hard to put into any category. Saying that The Book Of Transfigurations is a masterpiece is not an exaggeration.鈥�
Bajakian received his Bachelor of Music degree (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and holds a Masters Degree in Music Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and Master of Music degree in Music Composition from the University of British Columbia. He currently works as the Music Curator for Western Front in Vancouver, one of Canada鈥檚 leading artist run spaces for art and new music, where he has brought a diverse range of artists to perform, including Jen Shyu, Sam Amidon, Yu Su, Shahzad Ismaily, Melody McKiver and Angel Deradoorian, among others.