Before becoming a composer Igor played trumpet. He started playing when he was 7 and by the age of 16 was quite a promising student when Igor damaged his embouchure and had to interrupt his career. Only a decade later he started playing again during music lessons for children, then five years ago Igor joined a brass band SHA and from 2020 on picked up on regular practicing. Lessons with Frank van der Poel and his method “Less is more” have been a great help in regaining the embouchure!
Right now Igor focuses on Armenian traditional duduk repertoire which he plays on a four valves quarter tone trumpet specially made by Hub van Laar. Igor brings the beauty and warmth of the duduk’s sound and its ornamentation into his trumpet playing.
Igor is always open for interesting collaborations, don’t hesitate to reach out through the contact page!
Below you will find some of the recent recordings:
AnD A HaLf
One Dimension and a Half by Cinzia Nistico, where I played the trumpet part, has been selected by Radiophrenia Glasgow and Future Nostalgia FM in Germany for broadcasting!
An imaginary journal for voice, trumpet and electronics
Script /music/voice: Cinzia Nistico
Trumpet: Igor Iofe
A journalist is invited to document an expedition aimed at reaching Earth’s fluid strata. The journal starts from her arrival at a base in the Antarctica, where 4 heat-proof shuttles will be lowered down a 200kms long vertical tunnel. Each shuttle will contain one single member of the expedition: the journalist will be one of them. However, a series of events both preceding and accompanying the expedition, will change the prospective of the whole mission.. The story alludes to the Nordic myth of Jörmungandr the World Serpent, who grew to the point that it could embrace the entire circumference of the Earth. In the myth, when Jörmungandr will release its tail Ragnarök will begin. Ragnarök is a series of natural disasters leading to the submersion of the Earth in water.
Trumpet: Igor Iofe
‘Days that gone never come back again. The name is of this project is representative of the process that music goes from Athens to Amsterdam and came back as feedback.’
Piano: Thomas Nakas @to_mi_nor
Trumpet: Igor Iofe @igoriofe-1
Art Cover by Luana Bento: www.instagram.com/offluaph
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
This musical material is very dear to me and it came to me many years ago, in about 2002. I would walk to my bus stop to go to school or walk to the bazar always humming these few very simple chords. They were stuck in my head for quite some years. Strange that at that time I had never considered doing anything with this material. Maybe because I was very much occupied with abstract contemporary conceptual music back then. The older I become the more I appreciate clarity, simplicity and emotion in music rather than complexity and hidden abstract concepts. The time to unfold this material came 20 years after. Thomas Nakas aka @to_mi_nor brought it to life by creating a beautiful piano part, structure and arrangement. This is our second EP and there are more works to come!
The improvisations are rough, meaning that I recorded them in one take with no corrections or editing and this represents the concept of this EP. Do we have to be perfect at all? Or is it maybe more important to honestly communicate your thoughts, your feelings, regrets, nostalgia?..
Igor Iofe 