Scenes from I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment (A Work-in-Progress)

Other Minds presents scenes in workshop from the work-in-progress, I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment, by American composer Joseph Bohigian, Lebanese-Armenian vocalist Khatchadour Khatchadourian, and the music-technology group Ensemble Decipher. The free workshop performance 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.

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.

Ensemble Decipher has been performing with vintage, contemporary, and emerging technologies since 2017. I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment is the latest project in a long history of collaboration with Bohigian, also a member of the ensemble, as a composer, whose music focuses on memory, cultural reunification, and diaspora through the use of archival materials. This piece marks the first collaboration between Ensemble Decipher and Khatchadour Khatchadourian, an expert singer of traditional music from across West Asia in Armenian, Arabic, and Farsi.

This performance is funded in part by a grant from the MAP Fund. Seating is limited, please register for free here.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Dresher Ensemble Studio, W Grand Ave and Poplar St, Oakland, United States