Koki Nakano is a composer and a pianist, born in 1988 in Fukuoka, Japan.

After graduating Music High School at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, he enrolled at the composition department of Tokyo University of the Arts.

He has performed recitals at the Louvre and the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), Cadogan Hall (London), Lincoln Center (New York). He released his first album Lift in 2016, in collaboration with French cellist Vincent Segal under the Paris-based label Nø Førmat!.

​In 2019, Koki took part in a research workshop at the Reborn Art Festival in the landscapes of Ishinomaki‘s bay. Accompanied by renowned visual artist Kohei Nawa, famous choreographer Damien Jalet, and few dancers, they explore different points of fusion between the human body and the landscape.

​His second album Pre-choreographed is released in April 2020. Koki mixed his classical pieces with electronic sounds and he developed this relationship between dance and music.

In 2021, Koki composed the original music for Damien Jalet’s piece ‘Brise-lames’ and performed it live at Palais Garnier for Paris Opera’s opening gala.

His third album, Oceanic Feeling is released in 2022 as well as four musical videos gathering choreographers and dancers Tess Voelker and Nicolas Huchard, Marion Motin, Mourad Bouayad.

​Koki Nakano's new album Ululō is released in October 2024, in collaboration with singers Yaël Naim, Wayne Snow and Jordy.

Tigran Hamasyan is considered one of the most remarkable and distinctive jazz-meets-rock pianists/composers of his generation. A piano virtuoso with groove power, Hamasyan seamlessly fuses potent jazz improvisation and progressive rock with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia. Born in Gyumri, Armenia, in 1987, his musical journey began in his childhood home, where he was exposed to a diverse array of musical influences leading to him playing piano at the age of three, performing in festivals and competitions by the time he was eleven, and winning the Montreux Jazz Festival’s piano competition in 2003. He released his debut album, World Passion, in 2004 at the age of seventeen. The following year, he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Additional albums include New Era; Red Hail; A Fable, for which he was awarded a Victoires de la Musique (the equivalent of a Grammy Award in France); Shadow Theater; and Luys i Luso which featured the Yerevan State Chamber Choir focusing on Armenian sacred music stretching stylistically from the 5th century to the 20th century.

His Nonesuch debut, Mockroot (2015), won the Echo Jazz Award for International Piano Instrumentalist of the Year; subsequent records for the label include An Ancient Observer (2017) the companion EP, For Gymuri (2018), Revisiting the Film (2021) and most recently StandArt (2022). Hamasyan was awarded the Deutscher Jazzpreis international category in Piano/Keyboards in 2021. Hamasyan has released records on France’s Plus Loins, Universal France, Nonesuch and ECM.

Hamasyan’s new conceptual album “The Bird of a Thousand Voices” was released in August 2024 on Naïve/Believe – his debut with the label. Tigran composed, scored, and arranged the much-anticipated project blending its traditional folk footprints with rock influences. The first single from the album “The Kingdom” can also be experienced as an interactive game at www.bird1000.com. The recently released double album is inspired by an ancient Armenian tale in which a hero travels into unseen realms to find and bring back a mythical bird – whose thousand different songs will awaken people again and bring harmony to the world. The transmedia music theater piece ‘The Bird of a Thousand Voices’, an intriguing immersive light installation with shadow play, digitally programmed voices, live music, and an Armenian-English libretto, premiered at the Holland Festival in June 2024.

In addition to awards and critical acclaim, Hamasyan has built a dedicated following worldwide, as well as praise from Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau and the late Chick Corea. “With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements…Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies. You’ll hear nothing else like this” (NPR)