Sergey Manukyan

Sergey Manukyan is a vocalist, an instrumentalist, a composer, an arranger, a keyboardist and a drummer; the first and probably the only one musician in the country who perfectly masters the soul stylistics. He is well-known for a wide audience as a musician who artfully combines jazz elements and popular music.

Sergey was born in Grozny on March 15, 1955, started playing jazz on drums at 12. After graduating from the musical college he worked as a Philharmonic soloist and Radio and Television Orchestra of Chechen-Ingushetian Republic soloist. The beginning of his professional career Sergey considers his work in Alexander Shishkin’s band from Gorky. The first big fame came to him at Riga jazz festival in 1981, where he performed with this band as a drummer and a vocalist; critics called him a master of scat and jazz singer number 1.

After it Sergey played drums in his own jazz-rock group, worked with “Avicenna” group (having moved for it to Estonia), took part in many Russian jazz festivals and in festivals in Pori, Freiburg, Karlsruhe. The First International Contest of Jazz Vocalists in Poland brought him an award and popularity abroad.

In late 80-s Manukyan worked in the USA, cooperated with Richard Elliot at “Warner Brothers” Studio, performed on the same stages with such musicians as Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones.

In 1989 he got the higher award Gran-Prix at the First Television Music Contest “Stupen’ k Parnasu” and Audience Award and in 1994 Manukyan got the title “the best jazz musician of the year” and got “Ovation”award in this nomination.

In 1999 Manukyan participated in Anatoly Gerasimov’s project “Ritual Dances” where he played drums and sang. He has a lot of duet projects with such musicians as pianist Daniil Kramer, keyboardist Vyacheslav Gorsky, a pianist from Odessa Yuri Kuznetsov and others. At the present time Sergey is one of the most demanded and hard-working jazzmen of Russia: he plays drums and keyboards, sings, and takes part in concert and studio projects.

Tickets: €25 / 20 / 15 (balcony) / 10 (students)