Armenian Composer and Pianist Marie Awadis Signs Exclusive Contract with Deutsche Grammophon

Études Mélodiques, Awadis’s debut DG album, will be released on 13 September 2024

Awadis’s works bridge the worlds of classical and contemporary music,
combining Chopin with minimalism and Armenian flair

Listen to the album here · Watch the video for Étude No. 12 “Unveiled” here
Watch the album EPK here & Études Mélodiques: The Kühlhaus Sessions – Behind the Scenes here

“The moment you accept yourself, doors open”
Marie Awadis

Berlin, 11 September 2024. Deutsche Grammophon is delighted to announce the signing of an exclusive agreement with Armenian composer and pianist Marie Awadis. Born in Lebanon and now based in Germany, Awadis is known for her intimate, elegantly crafted music and sensitive sound. Her first collaboration with DG dates from 2021, when she contributed the track Alone to the third series of the label’s pioneering contemporary music series “XII”. Her debut DG album, Études Mélodiques, is released digitally and on CD on Friday 13 September 2024. A film of Awadis performing the music from the album at Berlin’s Kühlhaus will be unveiled on STAGE+ on 5 October. Directed by Yoel Culiner, whose innovative visual concept creates an appropriate atmosphere for each work, the film also presents four of the Études in new arrangements by Awadis for piano and string ensemble, two of which are premiered here.

“The Yellow Label has always symbolised the pinnacle of musical excellence for me,” says Marie Awadis. “Its legendary artists inspired and shaped me. Their ability to connect with emotions fuelled my desire to become a pianist and touch people in the profound way they touched me. I’m honoured and overjoyed to join the DG family, and eager to share my work, express my passion and explore a range of creative concepts. Signing with DG is an incredible privilege – and feels like coming home.”

Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon, welcomes Awadis to the label: “It’s rare to find an artist who has the zest to innovate in the genre of piano music, one who is firmly grounded in a centuries-long tradition and yet is also a free spirit, able to create unique experiences. Marie Awadis, whose Armenian roots are palpable throughout her work, is just such an artist. We very much look forward to continuing the journey we’ve successfully embarked on together – through this new  exclusive recording partnership – and to making her amazing music known to and loved by a global audience.”

“I’m thrilled that Marie is joining Deutsche Grammophon,” adds Christian Badzura, DG Vice President A&R New Repertoire. “She  combines her background as a classical concert pianist with her sometimes playful, sometimes thoughtful imagination as a composer. The music on her upcoming debut album perfectly reflects the various sides of her artistic personality.”

A collection of 12 solo piano pieces written and performed by Awadis, Études Mélodiques reveals the artist’s unique and personal voice, a product of the diverse influences that enrich her music, from deeply rooted classical traditions to the folk harmonies and melodies of Armenia. It also reflects her determination to be true to herself, to strip away the surface of display and reveal the emotions that lie beneath.

On the same day as the album release, a performance video for the final track, Étude No. 12 “Unveiled”, will be premiered on the DG YouTube channel (at 6pm CEST).

Awadis’s twelfth étude seems to stand as a metaphor for the whole album, with each of the other eleven representing a step on the path towards it – a voyage through past experiences and emotions that culminates in a state of balance and peace. “Even though it’s the last of the Études, ‘Unveiled’ is where I began,” says Awadis. “At first I called it ‘Heart Wide Open’ because it captured the idea that I no longer wanted to hide away. Hard as it was, I knew I wanted to express myself and my feelings through my music. I felt compelled to compose – I was finally being true to who I am and following a path of authenticity.”

“I spent so long concealing my true artistic self,” she adds. “That’s because I was unsure where I belonged – my music is not typically classical or neoclassical or avant-garde; it’s something in between these things. I was not part of the mainstream and felt inadequate when I judged myself against the big names who were. But I continued because I knew this was what I had to do. Now that I look at the Études, the pieces that came before them and where my music is going, everything suddenly makes sense.”

Armenian by ancestry, Awadis grew up in Lebanon before moving to Germany to continue her musical studies. After a break from composing, she was gradually drawn back to the craft. As she worked on Études Mélodiques, she began to think of her new works as studies because they reminded her of Chopin’s études. She has related to his music since childhood and calls him and Bach her “musical home”, while also exploring minimalism, a more recent but equally influential discovery.

“For me,” she explains, “the ideal way to compose is to combine my own intuitive approach with the rhythmic precision of American minimalism, the spirituality of European minimalism and the emotions of Armenian music. Because that’s me – I’m an Armenian-Lebanese-German combination.”

An earlier work by Marie Awadis (“Day V” from Una Corda Diaries) is one of six tracks that make up the score of choreographer Jennifer Archibald’s new ballet, ByCHANCE. Coinciding with the release of Études Mélodiques, the world premiere will be given by SMUIN Contemporary Ballet at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Mountain View, California, on 13 September, with further performances following in Walnut Creek and San Francisco until 20 October 2024.