Tsirani Ensemble

The Tsirani Ensemble are six award-winning musicians, sharing the musical heritage of Armenia with the world. Their repertoire is a journey into the traditional musical heritage of their home country: Komitasian songs, art and medieval, spiritual, folk and minstrel music of different times and regions of Armenia.

In beautiful, unique and modern interpretations, the ensemble joyfully revives the national historic music of Armenia on five traditional instruments: Georgy Minasyan — duduk & shvi, Mariam Mirzoyan — oud, Gor Ghalmukhian — dhol, Davit Avagyan — tar, soprano singer Eka Horstka, and Artak Asatryan — solo duduk and artistic director.

The ensemble started as an instrumental quintet in 2012, centered around the duduk as the main instrument. Their sound and repertoire expanded when two singers joined in 2014. Since then, they are on a journey of reviving and sharing the ancient musical heritage together, their performances evoking the emotions of the Armenian people and culture like its national symbol — the apricot.

"Tsirani", the Armenian word for "apricot", is not only the country's national symbol — the wood of the apricot tree is used to make the duduk, the traditional double-reed woodwind instrument also called "tsiranapogh" in Armenian, meaning "the apricot pipe". The instrument has a history of over 1,200 years.

The Tsirani Ensemble aims to bring the Armenian musical treasure to audiences worldwide — for the diaspora who miss the music dearly, and for curious music lovers and musicians around the world.