eJazzNews Archive

Pianist Tigran Hamasyan Wins 2006 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition

Originally published on eJazzNews · · Press Releases

On September 18, 2006, eJazzNews carried the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz press release announcing that Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan, then 19, had won the 2006 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, ahead of Gerald Clayton and Aaron Parks. All three finalists went on to long recording careers, and the institute now carries Herbie Hancock’s name.

What the 2006 release said

The release placed the result inside a weekend marking the institute’s 20th anniversary. President and Mrs. Bush hosted a dinner and East Room concert at the White House, presented by Barbara Walters, with Anita Baker, Herbie Hancock, Nnenna Freelon and Clark Terry among the performers. A Capitol luncheon followed, then the semifinals for 12 pianists at the Smithsonian’s Baird Auditorium. At the Kennedy Center gala, former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell presented the institute’s Maria Fisher Founders Award to Stevie Wonder, and Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Terence Blanchard and Patti Austin led an all-star concert. The judges were Hancock, Andrew Hill, Danilo Pérez, Renee Rosnes, Billy Taylor and Randy Weston.

Some details in the release need correcting. It said Hamasyan began playing piano at 10; he was picking out melodies on the family piano by three, attended a music school from six and was immersed in jazz by nine, according to a 2013 Guardian profile. It also misspelled Clayton’s teacher Kenny Barron as “Kenny Baron.”

The three finalists

Hamasyan was born in Gyumri, Armenia, on July 17, 1987, moved to California at 16 and recorded his first album, World Passion, at 18. The release noted he had already won the Monaco jazz soloists’ competition and was studying at the University of Southern California.

Gerald Clayton, born in Utrecht in the Netherlands and raised in Los Angeles, also studied at USC, after a year with Barron at the Manhattan School of Music. Aaron Parks, from Seattle, was then touring with trumpeter Terence Blanchard and appeared on his albums Bounce and Flow.

What happened next

Hamasyan built a career out of mixing jazz improvisation with Armenian folk and sacred music. His fifth album, Shadow Theater (Verve, 2013), set his piano and wordless vocals against baroque, jazz-rock and electronic textures, and he made his ECM debut with Luys i Luso (2015), Armenian hymns and sharakans arranged for piano and the Yerevan State Chamber Choir. In 2026 he released Manifeste. Hancock, one of his 2006 judges, later declared, as the Guardian reported, “Tigran, you are my teacher now!”

Clayton earned Grammy nominations for his debut Two Shade and later albums, signed with Blue Note for Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard (2020) and Bells on Sand (2022), and has toured and recorded with saxophonist Charles Lloyd since 2013. Parks made his Blue Note debut with Invisible Cinema in 2008 and returned to the label with Little Big III (2024) and By All Means (2025).

The competition continues under the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. Its 2026 edition, for vocalists, was scheduled for October 10 and 11, 2026, in Paris with the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the first time it has been held outside the United States.

Where to start listening

  • Luys i Luso (ECM, 2015): Hamasyan with the Yerevan State Chamber Choir, recorded in Yerevan in 2014.
  • Shadow Theater (Verve, 2013): Armenian folk songs recast with piano, wordless vocals and electronics.
  • Invisible Cinema (Blue Note, 2008): Parks’s label debut, with guitarist Mike Moreno, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland.

Sources

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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