“Junctions Beyond Jazz” presented by Casa del Jazz
Sun, May 31 2026
12:00 pm
Casa del Jazz – Sala concerti “Armando Trovajoli”Viale di Porta Ardeatina 55Roma, 00154
Rome’s Casa del Jazz presents Mayrig, Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher’s duo recital program, as part of their Junctions Beyond Jazz series.
An immersive and intimate program centered on the human voice, Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian) is a 60-minute show created by Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher for cello with electronics, piano and vocals. Through audio stories and soundscapes, the voices of Karen’s mother and grandmother are interwoven with original arrangements of Armenian music of her family’s past home of Anatolia, songs and stories drawn from their post-genocide home of Lebanon, and the beloved music of Charles Aznavour. New compositions by Lembit, Layale Chaker, Nathalie Joachim and Niloufar Nourbakhsh expand upon themes of generational transmission, rootedness and uprootedness, with music teeming with passion and celebration, resilience and rage. Opening and closing the program is Marin Marais’s Les Voix Humaines, music from hundreds of years ago providing a window into the present. Through the specifics of family history Mayrig creates an absorbing world of memory and association, leading the audience to an experience that is universal and shared, allowing space to consider the layers of meaning and history contained within music, and the twisting paths that have led us all to this time and place.