Swords, Sandals and Duduks: Djivan Gasparyan and "Your Strong Mind"

Today's tune, Your Strong Mind, is written and performed by Armenian musician Djivan Gasparyan. Gasparyan also contributed music to the movie Gladiator and it is very haunting. In particular, every time Russell Crowe's character flashes back to the that he is walking through a field of wheat, a haunting melody is playing. That melody was Gasparyan, who plays an instrument called the duduk. Gasparyan is widely thought of as "The Master of the Duduk," a double reed woodwind instrument related to the oboe. Gasparyan has received the WOMEX Lifetime Achievement Award and has collaborated with many artists, including Hossein Alizadeh, Sting, Erkan Ogur, Michael Brook, Peter Gabriel, Brian May, Lionel Richie, Derek Sherinian, Ludovico Einaudi, Boris Grebenshchikov, David Sylvian, Hans Zimmer and Andreas Vollenweider. Gasparyan and Hossein Alizadeh were nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 for their album Endless Vision and Gasparyan is the oldest person to be featured in a Eurovision song performance. Your Strong Mind can be found on his 2013 album I Will Not Be Sad In This World.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djivan_Gasparyan