André Manoukian

For five albums, Armenian music has been a source that nourishes André Manoukian’s modal jazz. With Ma Sultane, he traces back through a family memory in which a word from the East, heard in childhood, expresses the bond between mother and daughter. His piano turns it into living material, a memory that speaks, blending Levantine ornamentation with Western harmonies. He likes to remind listeners that these two worlds answer one another, and he composes as though assembling fragments of recollection, between intimacy and the circulation of influences.

On May 29, 2026, at the Salle de l’Étoile de Châteaurenard, Manoukian unfolds this repertoire on stage within a broad soundscape. Mosin Kawa’s Indian tablas establish a supple phrasing, launching motifs that converse with the keyboard. The Avignon-Provence National Orchestra expands the palette, stretches the nuances and emphasizes the melodic lines without freezing the improvisational impulse. Between East and West, the pianist lets the song flow, makes room for breaths, and entrusts the piano with the role of narrator: a language of tenderness where rhythms, melodies and traces of journeys intersect.