Concert

The Gurdjieff Ensemble in London

Songlines Encounters Festival

Booking

18 mai 2025 7:30 PM

Kings Place 2025 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG.

London - United Kingdom

Musicians from the internationally acclaimed Armenian Gurdjieff Ensemble bring its “intriguing, often gently exquisite set” to Kings Place for the first time, as part of Songlines Encounters Festival.

The Gurdjieff Ensemble are one of Armenia’s leading traditional music groups. This concert, based around their last album Zatir, is based on the music of Georges I. Gurdjieff, and songs of 18th century troubadours Sayat Nova and Baghdasar Dpir, whose song Zatir (Wake Up – to the world around us), is the symbol of this concert. It’s a rare opening to the rich tradition of Armenian folk music.

Gurdjieff Ensemble consists of leading musicians playing Armenian and Middle Eastern traditional instruments. The Ensemble was founded by Levon Eskenian to play ‘ethnographically authentic’ arrangements of the G. I. Gurdjieff/Thomas de Hartmann piano music, then diversely expanding the repertoire that now includes music from the Middle East, as well as ancient and medieval Armenian folk and spiritual music, troubadours songs from the Caucasus, and works by contemporary composers. Their Music of Georges.I. Gurdjieff debut album on the famous ECM records was widely acclaimed, and won prestigious awards including the Edison Award in the Netherlands, and since then the ensemble has been touring in nearly 150 cities in 30 countries in Europe, Australia, the Middle East, North, and South America, among which are sold-out performances at the Holland Festival, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Boulez hall in Berlin, the Bozar Center in Brussels, the Morgenland and Rudolstadt festivals in Germany, the Gulbenkian Hall in Lisbon, the Budapest Spring festival in Hungary, the Sala São Paulo in Brazil, the Albert Hall in Canberra, the World Music Festival Chicago in USA and many more.

Booking