Festival Parsi-Parla : André Manoukian

Born in Lyon in 1957 into a family of Armenian origin, André Manoukian learned to play the piano at an early age. He went on to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1977, before setting up his first big band. Composer and arranger (Liane Foly, Aznavour, Bécaud, Janet Jackson), creator of film scores (Jean-Philippe, 4 étoiles), he became a musical expert for the media (Nouvelle Star, France Inter, France Télévision). Founder of the Cosmojazz festival in 2010, he set up a project with the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc town council, "La Maison des Artistes", a production centre with two recording studios and a residency for artists. Passionate about improvisation, inspired by the Art of the Fugue and the algorithms of Johann Sebastian Bach, he co-founded a start-up, MatchTune, leading AI-powered audio and video tools for content creators and music industry professionals.

The Parsi Parla festival was born of the desire to bring Persian artistic culture, its music, its instruments, its literature and its colours to as many people as possible.