Alexander Baboian Quartet

Alexander Baboian is an eclectic guitarist, composer, producer, and educator from the US currently based in Belgium. He has been described by renowned music educator Hal Crook in JazzWax as a "future major voice in Jazz," and by All About Jazz as "a superb composer, an original improviser, and an apt bandleader." Alexander graduated Magna Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music in 2014, where he was awarded the Guitar Department Achievement Award twice and represented the college in major national festivals such as the Washington DC Jazz Festival and the JEN Jazz Conference. After graduating Alexander relocated to Europe and spent several years immersed in the vibrant art scene of Berlin, Germany, working with various forms of music and types of ensembles with memorable performances at the Morgenland Festival and Fusion Festival. His growing interest in his cultural heritage brought him to Armenia in 2018 where he was invited to teach in the Jazz department of Yerevan State Conservatory and worked closely with beloved Armenian Jazz pianist Vahagn Hayrapetyan. His continued academic ambitions brought him to Belgium in 2021, where he is currently studying electronic music at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and where he has had the opportunity to work with renowned artists such as Joey Baron, Chris Potter, and Lionel Loueke.
As a Jazz artist and instrumentalist Alexander has appeared on stage at major venues in America, Europe, and Asia such as The Kennedy Center, The Bohemian Caverns, Scullers, the Berklee Performance Center (US), A-Trane, B-Flat, Kunstfabrik Schlott (DE), The Music Village, The Hotclub Gent, De Muze (BE), The Bimhuis (NE), Opus Jazz Club (HU), Cafesjian Center for the Arts (AM), Shinsekai (JP), and All That Jazz (KR); academic institutions such as MIT (US), Harvard University, Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory (CZ), and Serendip Music Academy (KR); as well as festivals such as the DC Jazz Festival, JEN Jazz Conference, Beantown Jazz Festival (US), Morgenland Festival, Fusion Festival (DE), Lamatin Jazz Festival (HU), and the Goldon Apricot Film Festival (AM). He was featured in CNN's On The Road Armenia and in a piece by NBC News during the Pope's visit to Yerevan in 2016.
Alexander's debut album as a leader Curiosity (2014), featured his original compositions and arrangements for contemporary Jazz trio and quintet and was well received, being described by Hrayr Attarian at All About Jazz as "an intimate, contemplative and supremely lyrical work... sonic poetry." Although his music is deeply rooted in the jazz tradition, it is rich with many other influences such as blues, soul, folk, classical, and electronic music. His broad artistic vision has lead to interdisciplinary collaborations between music and the visual arts (painter Oliver Orthuber and VJ Chuu); spoken word (Rhode Island University Annual Langston Hughes Poetry Reading); and dance (tap dancer Christopher Erk's Tap in View and choreographer Katherine Leung's Dreamscapes). He has contributed music to short films, animations, and video games (Capcom's Shinsekai:Into the Depths) and participated in art installation projects (Isaac Chong Wai's The Horizon Where We Can Never Touch at CHB Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin and Ana Prvacki's Performing Daily Practice at the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum, Boston).
With education as one of his foremost musical passions, Alexander has lead workshops in the US, Armenia, South Korea, The Czech Republic, and Germany. Some of the bright names in contemporary music he has had the good fortune of studying with include David Tronzo, Simon Shaheen, Alain Mallet, Jamey Haddad, David Fiuczynski, Hal Crook, Ed Tomassi, Bruce Bartlett, Phil Wilson, Greg Hopkins, Bert Joris , David Gilmore, Tim Miller, Rick Peckham, Neil Leonard, Abigail and Norman Zocher, Andrew Claes, Bert Cools, Dago Sondervan, Artur Avanesov, and Marti Epstein.
https://youtu.be/7WelZoxuQew
Limited number of places, please book!
Entrance: 12,- euros