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Press Releases
Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher Tour New Immersive Program, Mayrig
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations
katy@primoartists.com | 646.801.9406
Saratoga Schaefer | Primo Artists | Publicist
saratoga@primoartists.com | 646.470.4456
Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher Tour
New Immersive Program, Mayrig
Meaning “Mother” in Armenian, Mayrig Interweaves the Voices of Ouzounian’s Family with Original Arrangements of Armenian Music, Songs and Stories from Lebanon, the Music of Charles Aznavour and Marin Marais, and Recent Works by Ouzounian, Beecher, Layale Chaker, Nathalie Joachim, and Niloufar Nourbakhsh
May 31, 2026 – Casa del Jazz (Rome, Italy)
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)
Watch the Mayrig Trailer Here | Mayrig EPK Here
Read an Interview with Ouzounian and Beecher in I Care if You Listen
“tremendous heart, bringing joy and a captivating sound to the stage”
– The Strad, on Karen Ouzounian
“operating with sure instincts… his musical invention is astonishing...”
– The Philadelphia Inquirer, on Lembit Beecher
www.karenouzounian.com | www.lembitbeecher.com
New York, NY (May 27, 2026) – 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, with music teeming with passion and celebration, resilience, and rage.
Opening and closing the program is Marin Marais’s Les Voix Humaines, music from hundreds of years ago providing a window into the present. Through the specifics of family history, Mayrig creates an absorbing world of memory and association, leading the audience to an experience that is universal and shared, allowing space to consider the layers of meaning and history contained within music, and the twisting paths that have led us all to this time and place.
Watch the music video for Lembit Beecher’s Green Line performed by cellist Karen Ouzounian.
Ouzounian has received the inaugural Alumni Catalyst Fund from the Ravinia Festival in Steans Institute, which supports Steans Institute alumni to bring bold, innovative projects to life. The fund provides financial backing, production resources, and performance space for selected projects. Ravinia Festival will premiere an expanded version of the Mayrig program on Saturday, September 5, 2026 at 1:30 PM, following a developmental workshop hosted by Ravinia from March 30 to April 2, 2026. This expanded version, co-produced by the Steans Institute, will include celebrated guest musicians oud player Ara Dinkjian, violist Maiya Papach, and bassist Shawn Conley, as well as newly commissioned visual art by the renowned French illustrator Charles Berberian. This expanded version of Mayrig will subsequently be presented on Sunday, October 18, 2026 at 3:00 PM at The Colburn School in Los Angeles.
Additional performances of the duo version of Mayrig include Casa del Jazz in Rome, Italy on Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 12:00 PM; Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 7:30 PM at Kaufman Music Center in New York City; Saturday, November 28, 2026 at 3:30 PM at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany; Saturday, December 5, 2026 at 5:00 PM at Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia; Sunday, March 21, 2027 at 4:00 PM at Noe Music in San Francisco, CA; and Sunday, April 18, 2027 at 4:00 PM at Music Toronto in Canada. Additional tour dates for the 2026-2027 season will be announced at a later date.
Tour Information:
Program (Unless Otherwise Marked)
Introduction
Les Voix Humaines from Pièces de viole, Livre II – Marin Marais, arr. Martins/Ouzounian
Audio Collage Nr. 1
PART I: CHILDHOOD
Sari Sirun Yar – Gusan Ashot arr. Lembit Beecher
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian, Karen’s Mother
Eghin Havasi (Melody of Egin) – transcribed by Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
Ottoman Armenian song as performed by Kemany Minas and Harry Hasekian in 1917 on Columbia Records
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian
Suite (of Childhood Learning), Mvt. 3: Lament – Lembit Beecher
Audio Collage Nr. 2
PART II: SONGS OF OUR MOTHERS, FOR OUR MOTHERS
Music for the Passing of Days, Mvt. 1 – Lembit Beecher
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian
La Mamma – Charles Aznavour arr. Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
Mardigi Yerke – Ashot Satyan arr. Karen Ouzounian
With the voices of Lena Ouzounian and Sirvart Hamboyan (Karen’s grandmother)
Audio Collage Nr. 3
PART III: BEFORE BLOOM
Music for the Passing of Days, Mvt. 8 – Lembit Beecher
Before Bloom – Layale Chaker
Audio Collage Nr. 4
PART IV: COMMUNITY
Cadenza from Tell Me Again – Lembit Beecher
Dam Mwen Yo – Nathalie Joachim
Songs of the Sap, Mvt. 2: Curcuna – Karen Ouzounian
Green Line – Lembit Beecher
With the voice of Lena Ouzounian
Veiled – Niloufar Nourbakhsh
CODA
Les Voix Humaines from Pièces de viole, Livre II – Marin Marais, arr. Martins/Ouzounian
Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Casa del Jazz Presents Junctions Beyond Jazz: Karen Ouzounian & Lembit Beecher
Armando Trovajoli Concert Hall | Rome, Italy
Link: www.casadeljazz.com/evento/junctions-beyond-jazz-karen-ouzounian-lembit-beecher/
Karen Ouzounian, cello & vocals
Lembit Beecher, piano & electronics
Saturday, September 5, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Ravinia Festival presents Mayrig
Sandra K. Crown Theater | Highland Park, IL
Link: www.ravinia.org/events/detail/karen-ouzounian-mayrig-260905
Program:
INTRODUCTION
Les Voix Humaines from Pièces de viole, Livre II – Marin Marais, arr. Martins/Ouzounian
Audio Collage Nr. 1
PART I: CHILDHOOD
Sari Sirun Yar – Gusan Ashot arr. Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian, Karen’s Mother
Eghin Havasi (Melody of Egin) – transcribed by Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
Ottoman Armenian song as performed by Kemany Minas and Harry Hasekian in 1917 on Columbia Records
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian
Suite (of Childhood Learning), Mvt. 3: Lament – Lembit Beecher
Audio Collage Nr. 2
PART II: SONGS OF OUR MOTHERS, FOR OUR MOTHERS
Music for the Passing of Days, Mvt. 1 – Lembit Beecher
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian
La Mamma – Charles Aznavour arr. Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
Mardigi Yerke – Ashot Satyan arr. Karen Ouzounian
With the voices of Lena Ouzounian and Sirvart Hamboyan (Karen’s grandmother)
Audio Collage Nr. 3
PART III: BEFORE BLOOM
Music for the Passing of Days, Mvt. 8 – Lembit Beecher
Songs of the Sap, Mvt. 3: Aksak Semai — Karen Ouzounian
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian
Before Bloom – Layale Chaker arr. Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
Audio Collage Nr. 4
PART IV: COMMUNITY
Songs of the Sap, Mvt. 2: Curcuna — Karen Ouzounian
Green Line – Lembit Beecher
With the voice of Lena Ouzounian
Veiled – Niloufar Nourbakhsh
CODA
Les Voix Humaines from Pièces de viole, Livre II – Marin Marais, arr. Lembit Beecher
Karen Ouzounian, cello & vocals
Lembit Beecher, piano & electronics
Ara Dinkjian, oud
Maiya Papach, viola
Shawn Conley, bass
Charles Berberian, visual artist
Sunday, October 18, 2026 at 3:00 PM
The Colburn School Presents Mayrig
Thayer Hall | Los Angeles, California
Link: https://colburnschool.edu/calendar/ (Tickets will be on sale in August)
Program
INTRODUCTION
Les Voix Humaines from Pièces de viole, Livre II – Marin Marais, arr. Martins/Ouzounian
Audio Collage Nr. 1
PART I: CHILDHOOD
Sari Sirun Yar – Gusan Ashot arr. Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian, Karen’s Mother
Eghin Havasi (Melody of Egin) – transcribed by Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
Ottoman Armenian song as performed by Kemany Minas and Harry Hasekian in 1917 on Columbia Records
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian
Suite (of Childhood Learning), Mvt. 3: Lament – Lembit Beecher
Audio Collage Nr. 2
PART II: SONGS OF OUR MOTHERS, FOR OUR MOTHERS
Music for the Passing of Days, Mvt. 1 – Lembit Beecher
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian
La Mamma – Charles Aznavour arr. Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
Mardigi Yerke – Ashot Satyan arr. Karen Ouzounian
With the voices of Lena Ouzounian and Sirvart Hamboyan (Karen’s grandmother)
Audio Collage Nr. 3
PART III: BEFORE BLOOM
Music for the Passing of Days, Mvt. 8 – Lembit Beecher
Songs of the Sap, Mvt. 3: Aksak Semai — Karen Ouzounian
The Voice of Lena Ouzounian
Before Bloom – Layale Chaker arr. Lembit Beecher and Karen Ouzounian
Audio Collage Nr. 4
PART IV: COMMUNITY
Songs of the Sap, Mvt. 2: Curcuna — Karen Ouzounian
Green Line – Lembit Beecher
With the voice of Lena Ouzounian
Veiled – Niloufar Nourbakhsh
CODA
Les Voix Humaines from Pièces de viole, Livre II – Marin Marais, arr. Lembit Beecher
Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Kaufman Music Center Presents Mayrig
Kaufman Music Center | New York City
Link: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/kc/calendar/
Saturday, November 28, 2026 at 3:30 PM
Mayrig as part of Rhiannon Giddens’s “Reflektor”Festival at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Kleiner Saal | Hamburg, Germany
Link: www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/whats-on/karen-ouzounian-lembit-beecher/27982
Saturday, December 5, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Arvo Pärt Centre Presents Mayrig
Arvo Pärt Centre | Laulasmaa, Estonia
Link: https://www.arvopart.ee/en/arvo-part-center/events/mayrig/
Sunday, March 21, 2027 at 4:00 PM
Noe Music Presents Mayrig
Noe Valley Ministry | San Francisco, CA
Link: https://www.noemusic.org/2026-2027/mayrig
Sunday, April 18, 2027 at 4:00 PM
MUSE: Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher
Jane Mallett Theatre | Toronto, ON
Link: https://musictorontoconcerts.com/2627concerts/karen-ouzounian-lembit-beecher
About Lembit Beecher
Estonian-American composer, pianist, and animator Lembit Beecher, winner of the 2025-2026 Samuel Barber Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome, writes “hauntingly lovely and deeply personal” music (San Francisco Chronicle) rooted in a fascination with the ways memories, histories, and stories permeate contemporary life. His work has drawn praise for its “astonishing musical invention” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) and “exquisite touches” (San Francisco Chronicle).
A childhood shaped by family stories of homeland, migration, and displacement sparked an early interest in documentary storytelling. Beginning with his 2009 documentary oratorio And Then I Remember, Beecher has created numerous works incorporating interviews, personal testimonies, and historical writings into the musical fabric, both as sung text and recorded audio. From song cycles such as After the Fires, based on conversations with residents of his hometown of Bonny Doon following the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fires, to large-scale works such as Say Home, a 38-minute piece for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra celebrating its Twin Cities community, Beecher’s works explore the relationship between individual experience and the large-scale forces that shape our lives.
Noted for his collaborative spirit and “ingenious” interdisciplinary projects (The Wall Street Journal), Beecher has served as Music Alive composer-in-residence with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and was the inaugural composer-in-residence of Opera Philadelphia. His three operas with Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch have drawn particular acclaim. His 2018 opera Sky on Swings, starring Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson and directed by Joanna Settle, depicts the relationship between two women living with Alzheimer’s disease and was praised as “a shattering musical and theatrical evocation of what it feels like to have Alzheimer’s disease” (The Wall Street Journal).
Recent works include Tell Me Again, a cello concerto written for his wife, cellist and composer Karen Ouzounian, and the Orlando Philharmonic; the song cycle A Year to the Day, featuring tenor Nicholas Phan and violinist Augustin Hadelich; and string quartets for the Juilliard, Aizuri, and Lydian String Quartets. He has also created a series of collaborative projects with Ouzounian, including Dear Mountains, a co-composed work for cello, oud, percussion, and choir, and Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian), a recital program weaving together family voices with music for cello, voice, piano, and electronics. Other recent premieres include the concerto Land of the Northern Frog for bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann and works for artists including Seth Parker Woods, Timothy McAllister, and Sasha Cooke.
Beecher is the recipient of awards from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the Fromm Foundation, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, and the S&R Foundation, among others, and has held residencies at the Copland House, MacDowell, Bogliasco Foundation, Penn Museum, and other institutions. He has taught at Denison University, the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, and SUNY Binghamton and earned degrees from Harvard University, Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and the University of Michigan.
Active also as an animator, Beecher has created stop-motion films for ensembles including the Experiential Orchestra, Aizuri Quartet, and Decoda. Learn more at www.lembitbeecher.com
About Karen Ouzounian
Sought after for her “radiant” (The New York Times) performances full of “tremendous heart, bringing joy and a captivating sound to the stage” (The Strad), Karen Ouzounian is a GRAMMY®-nominated cellist and composer who creates music from a deeply personal place. An omnivorous musical spirit who “powerfully shatters pigeonholes with her artistic partners” (Ravinia Magazine), she has premiered numerous works and collaborated with some of the most singular musicians of our time, including Yo-Yo Ma, Rhiannon Giddens, and Augustin Hadelich.
Ouzounian has appeared as a soloist in venues including the Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, and Carnegie Hall, as well as at leading festivals such as Marlboro, Ojai, Caramoor, and Ravinia, championing a remarkable breadth of music with fierce commitment and emotional power. As a composer, recent commissions include works for the Aeolus Quartet, Silkroad Ensemble, Salt Bay Chamberfest, and the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium.
In the 2026-27 season, Ouzounian appears in recital in New York, Hamburg, Chicago, Toronto, and Los Angeles, and makes her Boston Symphony Orchestra solo debut at the 2026 Tanglewood Festival as soloist in Kayhan Kalhor’s double concerto Venus in the Mirror.
Ouzounian’s current artistic focus includes a trio of projects created with her husband, composer and animator Lembit Beecher. Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian) is an immersive and intimate 65-minute show in which the voices of Karen’s mother and grandmother are interwoven with original arrangements of Armenian music of her family’s ancestral home of Anatolia, songs and stories drawn from their post-genocide home of Lebanon, the music of Charles Aznavour and Marin Marais, and recent works by Beecher, Layale Chaker, Nathalie Joachim, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Ouzounian. Dear Mountains, a 42-minute work commissioned by Cantori New York and co-composed with Beecher for chorus, solo cello, oud, and percussion, juxtaposes stories told and retold in Karen’s family with scenes of music-making across the Armenian diaspora over the last 100 years, as seen through archival recordings and writings. Third in the series is Tell Me Again, a concerto for cello and orchestra which received its world premiere with conductor Eric Jacobsen and the Orlando Philharmonic, and its West Coast premiere with conductor Cristian Ma?celaru at the 2024 Cabrillo Festival.
Dedicated to the art of chamber music, Ouzounian performs as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, and was the founding cellist of the Aizuri Quartet for 11 years, earning a GRAMMY® nomination and major chamber music prizes on three continents, and serving as the String Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a member of The Knights, she gave the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s Shorthand for solo cello and strings, which she recorded for Avie Records and toured as soloist with the ensemble throughout Germany, Denmark, and the U.S. to critical acclaim.
Ouzounian holds Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from The Juilliard School and a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. She was a fellow at the Ravinia Steans Institute in 2010, 2011, and 2014. Born to Lebanese-Armenian parents in Toronto, she resides in New York City with her husband, Lembit Beecher. Learn more at www.karenouzounian.com.
*Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz
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