#Concert
Music Concert: Alexandra Ivanova Trio feat. Mazen Lawand

Sensitivity, clarity and captivating rhythms characterize the sound of the Berlin-based Alexandra Ivanova Trio led by the Austrian pianist and composer of Bulgarian roots. With Niklas Lukassen on double bass and Nathan Ott on drums, the trio navigates between Jazz, Oriental and Afro-Cuban music. Alexandra's compositions stem from a deep journey into the self which is reflected in the heightened emotionality of her playing. Her arrangements of Oriental standards, Azeri and Icelandic folklore invite the listener to look at the world from different points of view: from the East, the West or from somewhere in between. In 2021 the trio recorded their debut album “Beauty in Chaos” featuring a collaboration with Paris-based Syrian singer Lynn Adib – to be released this year.

For this concert, the Trio will be joined by special guest Mazen Lawand who is a Lebanese self-taught guitarist and pianist with a Saudi Arabian upbringing. The origin of this European-Saudi collaboration is the story of a global pandemic: Alexandra and Mazen met virtually as guest artists in the masterclass of Tarek Yamani entitled “Reharmonising Arabic Music”, organized by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz at the UNESCO International Jazz Day 2020. They connected on their shared interest in creating conversations between jazz and maqam-based music and started collaborating virtually on each other’s compositions. While their artistic exchange has been entirely remote to date, the concert of the Alexandra Ivanova Trio with Mazen will be their first time performing live together for a live audience.

Alexandra Ivanova Trio

Sensitivity, clarity and captivating rhythms characterize the sound of the Berlin-based Alexandra Ivanova Trio led by the Austrian pianist and composer of Bulgarian roots. With Niklas Lukassen on double bass and Nathan Ott on drums, the trio navigates between Jazz, Oriental and Afro-Cuban music. Alexandra's compositions stem from a deep journey into the self which is reflected in the heightened emotionality of her playing. Her arrangements of Azeri and Icelandic folklore invite the listener to look at the world from different points of view: from the East, the West or from somewhere in between. In 2021 the trio recorded their debut album “Beauty in Chaos” featuring a collaboration with Paris-based Syrian singer Lynn Adib - to be released this year.
 

Alexandra Ivanova

Alexandra is a pluricultural pianist and composer, born in Austria with Bulgarian roots, and having called France, the Middle East and the Gulf her home. She was classically trained at the piano as a child and is primarily self-taught in jazz, performing with her jazz trios since the age of 16, before she found a mentor in autodidact Tarek Yamani at a later stage. Alexandra’s interest lies in polyrhythms, Bulgarian and Maqam-based music in conversation with jazz harmony and Afrocuban claves. She has performed her music in the UAE, Austria, Germany France, the UK, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Iceland, most notably at Reykjavik Jazz Festival 2020. Alexandra has earned scholarships from the Berlin Senate 2022 and the German Music Fund 2021 for her composition work and research.

Beyond her music, Alexandra is a hyperpolyglot and graduate of the Paris Institute for Political Sciences (Sciences Po Paris) with a past career in creative industry development, strategy and project management. Her research on Khaleeji rhythms has been featured on the international platform Afikra in two editions (2019 and 2020).
 

Niklas Lukassen

Bassist, composer and singer Niklas Lukassen lives in New York and Berlin and is a rising force in the international jazz scene with a special artistic signature. He holds a Masters’ degree from the Manhattan School of Music with a full scholarship under mentorship of Ron Carter. Niklas has collaborated with artists like Mike Stern, Joe Lovano, Oz Noy and Sean Wayland, and has toured Malaysia, China, England, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Austria and the USA. He has received generous endorsements, such as the dedication of a "Niklas Lukassen Signature Bass Guitar Model" from "Merlos" (Spain, 2016).
 

Nathan Ott

The young bandleader and drummer Nathan Ott was hailed by jazz experts since he released his debut album in 2016 with his quartet featuring Dave Liebman. He took the spirit of the Elvin-Jones Band’s legendary Lighthouse-Edition from the 70s into the 21st century and showed how fruitful such a transgenerational intercontinental encounter in jazz can be. In his young career, Nathan Ott has collaborated with artists like Richie Beirach, Tobias Delius and Jonas Westergaard. He has studied with Bill Elgart and Holger Nell in Germany, as well as with Adam Nussbaum, Greg Hutchinson and Billy Hart in the USA, before he moved to Berlin in 2019 where he currently lives and works.
 

Mazen Lawand

Mazen is a Lebanese self-taught guitar and piano player with a Saudi Arabian upbringing. He studied at Berklee College of Music with Simon Shaheen, Tim Miller and David Fuzinsky. He opened up for the first jazz festival in Saudi Arabia with his Saudi band “Min al Riyadh” in 2018. He also opened up for the first public music event in Saudi at the King Fahad Cultural Center with his Saudi band Allawashi in 2017. He has shared the stage with renowned names in the world of music such as Delfayo Marsalis, the late McCoy Tyner and Aldi Meola. His style of music is a mixture of jazz, blues, Arabic music and funk. He is also a big supporter of combining harmony with the Arabic maqam systems and is inspired by musicians such as Tarek Yamani, Yousef Yasin, Toufic Faroukh, Ibrahim Maalouf, Rabi’ Abu Khalil and Simon Shaheen.


Concert:

Date: Friday, February 25th 2022
Duration: 1 hour and 45 minutes
Gates open at 19:15 PM
Performance begins at 20:00 PM

RSVP by February 22nd 2022 Mail: programm-ksa@goethe.de