Performance: Raffi Garabedian

Commemorate Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, on the day after April 24, with a music performance by Raffi Garabedian. 

Raffi Garabedian is a tenor saxophonist and composer living in Oakland, California. A dedicated improvisationalist, Garabedian centers spontaneous composition as the foundation to explore new rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic cycles. Raffi was born and raised in Berkeley, California, and attended the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, from which he received a BFA in Jazz Performance. He has toured extensively—both at the helm of his own projects, and as a member of other groups—and has played and recorded with luminaries such as Jorge Rossy, Ben Street, Dayna Stephens, and Johnny Talbot. On Garabedian's last album, The Crazy Dog (2024), he ventured into new compositional grounds, writing for voice as part of an octet. Garabedian sourced the project’s lyrics from his father and grandmother’s writings about their lives in Turkish Armenia and the family’s journey to the United States during the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Garabedian plays in several other projects around the Bay Area. In addition to his music practice, Garabedian is a seasoned educator, and is on the jazz saxophone faculty at Sonoma State University, as well as instructing the award-winning Berkeley High School Jazz program. He has taught regularly at the California Jazz Conservatory, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and works with private students.

Connect:

Raffi Garabedian - Bandcamp