Ilia Mazia
Armenian duduk in Israel
Hello-Shalom-Barev!
Welcome to my website! My name is Ilia Mazia and I am a musician from Jerusalem playing Armenian duduk - a folk oboe whose expressiveness evokes human voice and which has become a symbol of Armenia. I was born in St. Peterburg, Russia. As a child I studied piano, later played horns in a brass orchestra and a bass guitar in a rock-band. Moving to Israel in 1991 I got fascinated by the unique local mixture of cultures and traditions from all over the world and got acquainted with the traditional music of the East. Listening to Djivan Gasparyan’s recordings I was enchanted by the sound of the Armenian duduk. Since then I use every opportunity to learn more about the duduk and Armenian culture. I visited Armenia a few times, traveling extensively and taking duduk lessons. I am a full-time member of the rock band Shoom and Dilijan Ensemble playing Armenian folk music. With Shoom we took part in the Second Duduk Festival in Yerevan in 2016. I also collaborated with different artists from Israel and from abroad including Jerusalem symphonic orchestra, Ana Alcaide(Spain), Red Avenue(Belgium, the solo project of Timofey Reznikov), Digital Samsara, Vellua(Sweden), "60 Reebo", Ruth Levin, SOBO, Psoy Korolenko (Russia), the vocal ensemble "Sirens" and many others .