Ensemble Decipher is headed to the Bay Area to present scenes in workshop from Joseph Bohigian’s work-in-progress, I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment with Lebanese-Armenian vocalist Khatchadour Khatchadourian. The free workshop performance, presented by Other Minds, will take place on Friday, July 25, 2025, at 7:30 pm at the Paul Dresher Ensemble Studio in Oakland, CA. The performance will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A with the ensemble, moderated by Charles Amirkhanian. Seating is limited. Register for free HERE.
I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment is an evening-length multimedia work for live electronics, solo voice, and video projection about the life of Georgian-born Soviet-Armenian film director Sergei Parajanov. Though he made significant contributions to film, Parajanov was repeatedly persecuted, censored, and imprisoned in his home country. The multiculturalism of his native South Caucasus region was essential to his work, which is reflected in the multilingual text for the piece by the 18th century bard Sayat Nova. The work combines Sayat Nova’s existing melodies with newly created ones by Khatchadourian and Bohigian, along with music by folk musicians from across the South Caucasus. The premiere will take place in 2026 at the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco.
