Arthur Ispirian: Inspiring the world through music
Jazz singer releases two new albums
by Paul Chaderjian
YEREVAN – In the dark of an Armenian winter’s night, the temperature has dipped to below freezing. Rooftops are covered with a blanket of snow, sheets of ice coat sidewalks, and a low cloud embraces the city in a light fog. While most Yerevanis are asleep in their warm beds, Armenia’s most endearing male vocalist is wide awake.
Meet Arthur Ispirian. Musician. Singer. Composer. Popular performer. Award winner. By day, Ispirian is the music program coordinator for the Cafesjian Center for the Arts. At night, he dials up his muses and dedicates at least four hours to writing, recording and producing albums, which are loved in Armenia and throughout the Diaspora.
“My interest in music started when I was ten,” says Ispirian. “My father brought home a stereo system with a turntable, and I began collecting the music that spoke to my heart.” Among the illegal vinyl records Ispirian collected and spent hours listening to where albums from the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the Rolling Stones.
“Everything changed one day, when a friend brought me an album by a musician I had not heard,” says Ispirian. That fateful day in 1976 was when Ispirian heard Stevie Wonder. The album was Wonder’s ‘The Key of Life,’ and it opened for him the door to a whole new world of music.
“That album was revolutionary for me,” says Ispirian, “and it introduced me to soul music and artists like Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown and Barry White.” Ispirian was so inspired by the music he was hearing, that he wanted to create some of it himself. He wanted to be part of the sound, create the music, share the art and entrench himself into the magic being created by the likes of Wonder, Gaye and Brown.
“I found a composer who wrote soul music with Armenian lyrics,” says Ispirian. “Arthur Grigorian had a private music school and a performance group, were singers like Datevik Hovhannisian, Erna Yuzbashyan and others collaborated and performed.” Ispirian told Grigorian about his passion for soul and jazz, and Grigorian invited Ispirian to an audition. Ispirian knocked the socks off Grigorian and his peer, and he was invited to join Grigorian’s performance group.
During the last days of the Soviet Empire in 1988, Ispirian experienced his first days in the limelight. In a television talent show produced by Grigorian, he won perfect scores and established himself as the top male vocalist in Armenia. The “Ayo” show awarded Ispirian top honors and launched his career and the careers of some of Armenia’s other well-known performers, including Nune Yesayan, Emma Petrossian and Anahid Manukyan.
What followed were a series of successes, awards, concerts, honors and invitations to perform at jazz festivals as far away as Talinn, Estonia and the United States. Ispirian was named “Mr. Soul,” earned the title of Armenia’s best vocalist from the Armenian State Song Theater, won the top male vocalist honor at the Groong Music Festival, was voted newcomer of the year at the Armenian Music Awards, and he scored the top vocalist honor at the 2003 Sayat Nova Music Competition.
So much success and so fast, he says, is because he loves what he does. Since recording his first album, “This is My Prayer,” in 1995, his fans have watched him grow from singing Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Luther Vandross covers to performing original songs, which he has composed, arranged and produced.
Ispirian’s second album was dedicated to his muse, Stevie Wonder. “Colors of Stevieland” featured songs from the Motown genius, rearranged and interpreted by Ispirian.
With his third and fourth album, “Three Candles” and “Asum En Te”(available through narek.com) that Ispirian explored his passion for music with Armenian lyrics. Along with original compositions, Ispirian recorded vintage hits from the 1970s and 1980s, hoping to introduce younger generations to the rich music and literature of his parents’ generation.
“People’s reception to these albums with songs from composers like Alexander Ajemian, Khatchadoor Avedisian and Stepan Jerbashian has been positive,” says Ispirian. “These are nostalgic songs that have been welcomed by Diaspora Armenians, since many left the homeland during the era when these songs were originally performed.”
His audience, in Armenia and abroad, loves the sound. Not only are the songs familiar, but Ispirian's original compositions: soul music, R&B and jazz with original Armenian lyrics. This is the sound critics called “soulful and smooth.” And in the Armenian music scene, Ispirian quickly established himself as cutting edge and unafraid.
Perhaps Ispirian’s personality to take chances musically developed when he had to take chances in his personal life. During Armenia’s worst days in recent history, when the country was suffering from the aftermath of the 1988 earthquake, the fighting continued on the Kharapagh front, and the nation was trying to survive an economic blockade and energy crisis, Ispirian was forced to decide what was more important to him. He decided to go against conventional wisdom of seeking financial security in the US to try to contribute to the well-being of those in his homeland.
“I was living in the United States and felt blessed to be part of the music scene that inspired me,” he says. “Going to concerts and clubs and hearing talented rhythm and soul musicians night after night were incredible, but being so far away from home both tainted and enriched the experience.” The irony of being so close to the genre he loved but so far away from the people and nation he cared about forced him to make his life-changing decision.
“All my friends were telling me about the ‘brain drain’ and the long lines at the American Embassy filled,” says Ispirian. “My parents would tell me about our artists, scientists, doctors and professionals, who were leaving because there was no money, no heat, no electricity. I decided that I wasn’t going to be part of the generation that abandoned the homeland.”
Ispirian returned home, married his sweetheart Madlene and has spent the past few years making beautiful music. Along with his mainstream album of songs, he has recorded two CDs he calls meditative music. “Art in Space” and “Space, Earth and Ocean” are not soul music but music for the soul. These albums of electronic music, Ispirian says, speak to his heart. “I want this music to both expand my mind and allow me to expand the art of music.”
After electronica came another look to the past with two new recordings, his seventh and eighth, and a look into the future with the arrival of two sons. Madlene gave birth to Davit in 2005 and Shahen in 2006 and Arthur kept up with his after-hours clock recordings and musical projects.
The first of Ispirian's latest albums is called “Jazz Avans,” and it includes 1960s Armenian songs with a live jazz trio. The second and most recent album called "Radio Yerevan" features the talents of composers and Armenian jazz legends, Yervand Yerznkian and Martin Vardazarian. "Radio Yerevan" brings audiences songs about Yerevan from 1939-1970.
And on this night, as on most nights, when much of Yerevan, his bride Madlene and two infant sons are fast asleep, the lights of Arthur Ispirian's home studio are still on, his headphones are around his ears, and the inspired Ispirian can still be heard to scatting to himself and working the keyboard to bring to life new music until the morning dawn.
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by Paul Chaderjian
YEREVAN – In the dark of an Armenian winter’s night, the temperature has dipped to below freezing. Rooftops are covered with a blanket of snow, sheets of ice coat sidewalks, and a low cloud embraces the city in a light fog. While most Yerevanis are asleep in their warm beds, Armenia’s most endearing male vocalist is wide awake.
Meet Arthur Ispirian. Musician. Singer. Composer. Popular performer. Award winner. By day, Ispirian is the music program coordinator for the Cafesjian Center for the Arts. At night, he dials up his muses and dedicates at least four hours to writing, recording and producing albums, which are loved in Armenia and throughout the Diaspora.
“My interest in music started when I was ten,” says Ispirian. “My father brought home a stereo system with a turntable, and I began collecting the music that spoke to my heart.” Among the illegal vinyl records Ispirian collected and spent hours listening to where albums from the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the Rolling Stones.
“Everything changed one day, when a friend brought me an album by a musician I had not heard,” says Ispirian. That fateful day in 1976 was when Ispirian heard Stevie Wonder. The album was Wonder’s ‘The Key of Life,’ and it opened for him the door to a whole new world of music.
“That album was revolutionary for me,” says Ispirian, “and it introduced me to soul music and artists like Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown and Barry White.” Ispirian was so inspired by the music he was hearing, that he wanted to create some of it himself. He wanted to be part of the sound, create the music, share the art and entrench himself into the magic being created by the likes of Wonder, Gaye and Brown.
“I found a composer who wrote soul music with Armenian lyrics,” says Ispirian. “Arthur Grigorian had a private music school and a performance group, were singers like Datevik Hovhannisian, Erna Yuzbashyan and others collaborated and performed.” Ispirian told Grigorian about his passion for soul and jazz, and Grigorian invited Ispirian to an audition. Ispirian knocked the socks off Grigorian and his peer, and he was invited to join Grigorian’s performance group.
During the last days of the Soviet Empire in 1988, Ispirian experienced his first days in the limelight. In a television talent show produced by Grigorian, he won perfect scores and established himself as the top male vocalist in Armenia. The “Ayo” show awarded Ispirian top honors and launched his career and the careers of some of Armenia’s other well-known performers, including Nune Yesayan, Emma Petrossian and Anahid Manukyan.
What followed were a series of successes, awards, concerts, honors and invitations to perform at jazz festivals as far away as Talinn, Estonia and the United States. Ispirian was named “Mr. Soul,” earned the title of Armenia’s best vocalist from the Armenian State Song Theater, won the top male vocalist honor at the Groong Music Festival, was voted newcomer of the year at the Armenian Music Awards, and he scored the top vocalist honor at the 2003 Sayat Nova Music Competition.
So much success and so fast, he says, is because he loves what he does. Since recording his first album, “This is My Prayer,” in 1995, his fans have watched him grow from singing Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Luther Vandross covers to performing original songs, which he has composed, arranged and produced.
Ispirian’s second album was dedicated to his muse, Stevie Wonder. “Colors of Stevieland” featured songs from the Motown genius, rearranged and interpreted by Ispirian.
With his third and fourth album, “Three Candles” and “Asum En Te”(available through narek.com) that Ispirian explored his passion for music with Armenian lyrics. Along with original compositions, Ispirian recorded vintage hits from the 1970s and 1980s, hoping to introduce younger generations to the rich music and literature of his parents’ generation.
“People’s reception to these albums with songs from composers like Alexander Ajemian, Khatchadoor Avedisian and Stepan Jerbashian has been positive,” says Ispirian. “These are nostalgic songs that have been welcomed by Diaspora Armenians, since many left the homeland during the era when these songs were originally performed.”
His audience, in Armenia and abroad, loves the sound. Not only are the songs familiar, but Ispirian's original compositions: soul music, R&B and jazz with original Armenian lyrics. This is the sound critics called “soulful and smooth.” And in the Armenian music scene, Ispirian quickly established himself as cutting edge and unafraid.
Perhaps Ispirian’s personality to take chances musically developed when he had to take chances in his personal life. During Armenia’s worst days in recent history, when the country was suffering from the aftermath of the 1988 earthquake, the fighting continued on the Kharapagh front, and the nation was trying to survive an economic blockade and energy crisis, Ispirian was forced to decide what was more important to him. He decided to go against conventional wisdom of seeking financial security in the US to try to contribute to the well-being of those in his homeland.
“I was living in the United States and felt blessed to be part of the music scene that inspired me,” he says. “Going to concerts and clubs and hearing talented rhythm and soul musicians night after night were incredible, but being so far away from home both tainted and enriched the experience.” The irony of being so close to the genre he loved but so far away from the people and nation he cared about forced him to make his life-changing decision.
“All my friends were telling me about the ‘brain drain’ and the long lines at the American Embassy filled,” says Ispirian. “My parents would tell me about our artists, scientists, doctors and professionals, who were leaving because there was no money, no heat, no electricity. I decided that I wasn’t going to be part of the generation that abandoned the homeland.”
Ispirian returned home, married his sweetheart Madlene and has spent the past few years making beautiful music. Along with his mainstream album of songs, he has recorded two CDs he calls meditative music. “Art in Space” and “Space, Earth and Ocean” are not soul music but music for the soul. These albums of electronic music, Ispirian says, speak to his heart. “I want this music to both expand my mind and allow me to expand the art of music.”
After electronica came another look to the past with two new recordings, his seventh and eighth, and a look into the future with the arrival of two sons. Madlene gave birth to Davit in 2005 and Shahen in 2006 and Arthur kept up with his after-hours clock recordings and musical projects.
The first of Ispirian's latest albums is called “Jazz Avans,” and it includes 1960s Armenian songs with a live jazz trio. The second and most recent album called "Radio Yerevan" features the talents of composers and Armenian jazz legends, Yervand Yerznkian and Martin Vardazarian. "Radio Yerevan" brings audiences songs about Yerevan from 1939-1970.
And on this night, as on most nights, when much of Yerevan, his bride Madlene and two infant sons are fast asleep, the lights of Arthur Ispirian's home studio are still on, his headphones are around his ears, and the inspired Ispirian can still be heard to scatting to himself and working the keyboard to bring to life new music until the morning dawn.
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