Tigran Hamasyan

Tigran Hamasyan concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art — : Tigran Hamasyan

FOR FANS OF: Meshuggah, Hiromi, Animals as Leaders, Snarky Puppy, Avishai Cohen, The Bad Plus, Allan Holdsworth, Planet X, Return to Forever, John Zorn, Plini, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Periphery, AALY Trio, Portraits, Victoria, Car Bomb

March 11, 2026 at the Gardner Auditorium (in the Cleveland Museum of Art) in Cleveland, OH

Walking into the Gardner Auditorium brought back a lot of good memories. I used to help with sound and setup for shows at CMA. When I walked in, I saw some familiar faces I had once worked with. Glad to see the team is still together!

I was extremely excited to cover this concert, let alone the excitement I had to see Tigran’s music in person. He hadn’t come to Cleveland yet so I’m glad I was able to see him his first time around. I’m also glad to see they picked such a cool venue with such incredible sound quality. When you walk in, you can see the entire back wall of the venue is made up of huge organ pipes. There was an organ on stage as well as a Steinway & Sons grand piano. There was a house drum kit for Arman Mnatsakanyan (State Jazz Orchestra of Armenia, Vahagn Hayrapetyan Trio, Dialog Project, New Quintet, Karen Grigoryan Quartet, Armenian Navy Band, Kind of Trio, etc.), which surprised me. You’d think touring musicians like this would be particular when it came to their gear but I understand it must be hard to fly to places around the world with a drum kit. Evan Marien (played with Allan Holdsworth Band, Wayne Krantz, Tim Miller, Virgil Donati, Elliot Moss, Justin Brown's NYEUSI, Intervals, Victoria, etc.) had a Mark Bass amp and a Neural DSP Quad Cortex and played a Sandberg 5 string bass. Accompanying Tigran was also Yessaï Karapetian on keyboards, another incredibly diverse musician native to Armenia.

What makes Tigran’s music so interesting, and why so many prog music lovers enjoy his music, is he blends Jazz improv, prog rock, metal rhythms, Armenian folk melodies and a huge range of textures and tones. If you like prog rock/metal, it would be an easy transition into the world of jazz listening to Hamasyan. The audience included jazz, metal, classical, armenian and prog lovers in a cool melting pot of love for good music. Lots of odd-meter grooves and prog lingered in the air as the audience bobbed their head as best as they could along with the set that was composed of mostly music from Tigran’s newest album, Manifeste. What’s cool is I assume each person in the audience feels like they have something to listen to that interests them specifically at every moment. Jazz lovers hear their innovation. Prog lovers hear the time signature changes and rhythms. Metal fans hear their intensity and driving unique chords.

The person who introduced Tigran to the stage stated he had won a Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition, which led me to wonder what else he’d achieved in his career. After looking into it, I see this insane list:

Montreux Jazz Festival: Won first place in the piano competition in 2003, at the age of 14.
Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition: Won first place at this prestigious competition in 2006.
Martial Solal International Jazz Competition: Won second place in Paris in 2006.
Vilcek Foundation: Awarded the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Contemporary Music in 2013.
Paul Acket Award: Honored with this accolade at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2015.
Victoires de la Musique: Awarded "Album of the Year" in France (equivalent to a French Grammy) for his 2011 solo piano album A Fable.
Echo Jazz Award: Won International Piano Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015 for his Nonesuch debut, Mockroot.
Deutscher Jazzpreis: Won the award in the international category for Piano/Keyboards in 2021.

If this doesn’t get you interested in his music and believe in his innovative talent, I don’t think this is the article for you. He’s been establishing a presence globally since an incredibly young age. I can’t wait to see where his music goes from here. I recently saw an interview with Tigran where he name-dropped the band Car Bomb, which is the absolute last band I’d expect Tigran to listen to, let alone know existed. It makes sense the mathcore/deathcore ever-changing rhythms would pique Tigran’s interest. I was just surprised and excited to hear it since I’m a big Car Bomb fan as well.

Sadly, Tigran never went over to the organ, even though it was teased that he would. I would’ve loved to hear his music erupt from the tree-sized pipes.

Follow these musicians at @tigranhamasyan @evanmarien @redfadoli and @armandrumzz to stay up to date on their next shows.

Images shot by Shane McNicholas @elsephoto with a Canon R5 and R6ii and a RF 24-105 2.8, RF 70-200 2.8