GRAMMY-nominated Armenian-Canadian cellist and composer Karen Ouzounian and Rome Prize-winning Estonian-American composer, pianist and animator Lembit Beecher continue their creative partnership with their new program Mayrig, touring internationally throughout 2026 and 2027.
Premiered at Germany’s Morgenland Festival Osnabrück in summer 2025 and presented since in Amsterdam and San Diego, Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian) is an immersive and intimate 65-minute show created by the husband and wife duo centered on the human voice and featuring cello, electronics, piano, and vocals. The voices of Ouzounian’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 Beecher, Layale Chaker, Nathalie Joachim, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Ouzounian expand upon themes of generational transmission, rootedness, and uprootedness.
Opening and closing the program is Marin Marais’s Les Voix Humaines, music from hundreds of years ago providing a window into the present.
September 5, 2026 – Ravinia Festival (Highland Park, Illinois)
October 18, 2026 – The Colburn School (Los Angeles, California)
October 27, 2026 – Kaufman Music Center (New York, New York)
November 28, 2026 – Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg, Germany)
December 5, 2026 – Arvo Pärt Centre (Estonia)
March 21, 2027 – Noe Music (San Francisco, CA)
April 18, 2027 – Music Toronto (Toronto, Canada)
