Levon Ichkhanian

Levon Ichkhanian is a Lebanese guitarist whose music draws from jazz and Middle Eastern music.

Career

The son of Armenian jazz pianist Edouard Ichkhanian, he was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and moved with his family to Toronto, Canada, when he was 12. In his teens he switched from classical guitar to electric guitar. At 13 he performed professionally with Armenian pop singer Adiss Harmandian. Four years later a scholarship from the Ontario Arts Council helped him study jazz at the University of Toronto. In the 1990s he took lessons from jazz guitarists Jim Hall, Steve Khan, and Pat Martino. In addition to guitar he plays mandolin, bouzouki, and oud.^[1]

He has released solo albums, played on over 100 recordings (e.g. Waqt Par Bolna Hariharan, Tango Notturno Isabel Bayrkdarian, Canadian Idol: Greatest Moments BMG Music Canada), performed on soundtracks for Atom Egoyan and David Suzuki, and was an orchestra member in theatre productions for Jersey Boys, Lord of the Rings, and Spamalot). He has toured throughout Canada, United States, Caribbean, South America and Europe, both with his own world/jazz group, as well as with Sattar, Svik Apik, Hariharan, Shankar, Mahadevan, A.R. Rahman, and Peter Murphy.

After the 1988 Armenian earthquake, he was musical director for a benefit concert in Toronto to raise funds for an Armenian medical clinic.

Discography

• After Hours
• Travels
• Kick-n' Jazz

Commissions

• The Ark, Nashville Chamber Orchestra
• The Wedding, Atlantic Jazz Society

References

External links

• Official site