Lena Chamamyan

Lena Chamamyan (Arabic: لينا شماميان‎, Armenian: Լենա Շամամեան; born 27 June 1980) is a Syrian-Armenian singer,[1][2] she sings, writes, produces music and plays instruments. She sings mainly in Arabic, Armenian and other languages such as Syriac, English, French and Italian.

Lena Chamamaan
لينا شماميان
Born (1980-06-27) 27 June 1980
Damascus, Syria
Occupation(s)Singer
InstrumentsVocals
Years active2005–present

Lena lent her voice to a number of TV series and dramatic works in Syria and abroad: Nizar Qabbani series, Grandmas Tattoos (a Swedish-Armenian movie), Behind the Mirror (an Algerian-French movie).

She also actively contributes to many cultural endeavors, such as the initiative to catalogue Syrian music and the radio programme Douzana.

Early life

Lena was born in Damascus, Syria during the year 1980. She was born in to an Armenian Catholic family, with her father Artine being born in Aleppo. She comes from a family of Armenian Genocide survivors, as her paternal great-grandfather was from Marash in Cilicia. While many of her father's family repatriated to Soviet Armenia in 1947, her grandfather Hovannes chose to remain in Aleppo. Lena owes much of her early musical education and experience to her grandmother Arax Djamdjian, and to her father. Her grandmother introduced her to classical singing and traditional Armenian music, while her father, a saxophonist, shared with her his love for the Armenian language and its music. As a homage to her Armenian heritage, Lena includes a revisited Armenian folk song in each of her albums and concerts.

Themes and Style

Through her music, Lena revives folkloric songs (Syrian, Armenian and Lately Bahraini) with modern styles and arrangements, creating a link between oriental classical music and contemporary world music. This style is embodied in her first two albums, Hal Asmar El-Lon and Shamat, which Lena collected traditional folkloric songs from the Levant and re-mixed them. She shows off her full range of musical skill in her third album Ghazal El-Banat to become one of the few eastern women who write, produce, play instruments, and sing.

Since she met Göksel Baktagir in 2013, Lena Chamamyan and Maher Sabra affected by his music, they lead their lyrics over some of his compositions. Thus, new songs were born joining some of Lenas compositions in a new album, so called LAWNAN (2 Colours).

The written lyrics are in Arabic. As in her previous albums, Lena offers her audience a revisited Armenian folk song. Moreover, the audience will explore Lena's new scat singing. The album is a challenging musical work gathering emotions, creativity and energy.

Lena is leading some projects about revisiting the folk music in several Arabic countries.

Education

2002 - Graduated from the Economic Management Department at Damascus University.

2007 - Graduated from the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus as a soprano dramatic singer.

Awards

2005 Egypt - The Cultural Resource Price 2006 Paris - The first Monte Carlo music award

2007 Syria - The best Young Arabic Woman Voice on the Radio

2008 Austria - Rated five stars as a world music singer by Austrian media

2010 UAE - Ranked among the 500 most influential Arab figures in the Arab society

Albums

2006 - Asmar Ellon

2007 - Shamat

2013 - Ghazl El Banat

2016 - LAWNAN

Lately, Lena is working on occidental with each of the composer and the pianist André Manoukian including a variety of languages: Arabic, Armenian, Syriac, French and English.

Achievements
  • In 2014, Lena Chamamyan was invited, as a jury member and a special guest, to the international contest for Armenian music Tsovits Tsov at the Kremlin Theatre- Moscow, gathering for the first time multiple style of the Armenian music from all over the world.
  • Considered as the Syrian ambassador spreading the Jasmin voice of Damascus on prestigious international venues: Kremlin Theatre (Moscow), Zorlu Performance Centre, Yildiz Palace & Istanbul Congress Centre (Istanbul), Barbican Theatre (London), Victoria Hall (Geneva), Roman Theatre (Amman), National Theatre (Bahrain), Kampnagel-Hamburg (Germany), Beiteddine Festival (Lebanon), Saint Georges Hall (Liverpool), Berwaldhallen (Stockholm).
  • Specialized in Armenian classical school of singing with the Armenian Opera singer Arax Tchekidjian.
  • Collaboration with: Maestro Valter Sivolotti (Italy), Jan Akkerman (Holland), Göksel Baktagir (Turkey), André Manoukian (France), Gloria Schalchi (Italy), Manfred Leuchter (Germany), Carmen Villata (Italy).

References
  1. "Review: Lena Chamamyan at St George's Hall for the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival". Liverpool Echo. 18 June 2013.
  2. "Award-winning Syrian artist Lena Chamamyan in London". Arab News. 23 April 2017.

Official website

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