A Tribute to Emery took place in April 2025 at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, with the Vahagni Quartet: Vahagni on guitar, Manuel Gutiérrez on dance, Antoine Kartz on bass and Diego Alvarez on percussion.
Vahagni
Vahagni is a guitarist, composer and producer. His music is not genre-based; it is rooted in many cultures, from flamenco, Armenian folk, classical and jazz to electronic production and experimental art music.
An Armenian who grew up in Los Angeles with a deep connection to flamenco, he always had a guitar in his hands and started playing at the age of 9, with his father, a professional classical guitarist, as his musical mentor. As a teenager he lived and studied flamenco in Andalucía, Spain, with masters such as Manolo Sanlúcar and Paco Serrano, to immerse himself in that culture.
His career also began in his teens, playing small gigs and sitting in with his father and his bands. He found a love for composition at a very young age; since then he has mainly played his own works in concert, and he has recorded four albums and three EPs as a soloist.
His curiosity has pulled him in many directions, from musical director and guitarist for Concha Buika to lead guitarist for Capital Cities and co-founder of the duo Paco Versailles. Through it all, the flamenco guitar has remained his center: a seed with deep roots planted at a very young age.
He describes his approach to music as honest and human. We are made of many different parts, he says, so our expression naturally holds all of them, and he aims for that balance to exist in his music as naturally as it does in us.