Lamnth is a violin and cimbalom duo founded in 2023 by Lilit Hartunian and Nicholas Tolle dedicated to building a new repertoire for their unique pairing. Their thoughtful and hands-on approach to collaborating has yielded new works by composers including Maya Bennardo, Darcy Copeland, Marti Epstein, Ash Graham, Sid Richardson, Golnaz Shariatzadeh, and Niloufar Shiri. Selected for a 2023 Avaloch Farm Music Institute residency, Hartunian and Tolle rehearsed and workshopped their first commissioned work, Mischa Salkind-Pearl's Lines and Traces of Desire, for a recording to be released in 2025. In 2024 they returned to Avaloch to create a new piece with Bahar Royaee. Their second season in 2024-2025 will see premieres by Anthony Green, Curtis Hughes, John McDonald, and a residency with New Music Brandeis.
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In 2024 they launched two annual initiatives: LamnthLab, an open call for composers that will result in two commissions, and the Jack-o-Lamnthern Spooktacular, a Halloween concert that invites composers to "dress up" as other composers by arranging existing music for violin and cimbalom.
Hartunian and Tolle, long established members of the Boston new music community, are frequent performers with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, A Far Cry, Emmanuel Music, and Sound Icon, among other groups. They also frequently perform together with The Ludovico Ensemble, founded by Tolle, including a duo concert in March 2022 which led to the launch of this project.
Violinist Lilit Hartunian performs at the forefront of contemporary music innovation, both as soloist and highly in-demand collaborative artist. First prize winner in the 2021 Black House Collective New Music Soloist Competition, Ms. Hartunian’s "Paganiniesque virtuosity" and “captivating and luxurious tone” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) are frequently on display at the major concert halls of Boston, including multiple solo performances at Jordan Hall and chamber music at Symphony Hall (Boston Symphony Orchestra Insights Series), as well as at leading academic institutions, where she often appears as both soloist and new music specialist. Highlights from the 2023 season include performances with A Far Cry at The Kennedy Center, Boston Modern Orchestra Project at Carnegie Hall, and [Switch~ Ensemble] at June in Buffalo, as well as the release of an album featuring A Far Cry, Roomful of Teeth, and pianist Awadagin Pratt. Described as “brilliantly rhapsodic” by the Harvard Crimson, Ms. Hartunian can be heard on New Focus Records, Innova Recording, SEAMUS records, New Amsterdam Records, and on self-released albums by Ludovico Ensemble and Kirsten Volness. As collaborative artist and ensemble musician, Ms. Hartunian regularly performs with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, A Far Cry, Sound Icon, Emmanuel Music, Callithumpian Consort, Guerilla Opera, and Ludovico Ensemble, and recently performed as guest artist with the Lydian Quartet, Arneis Quartet, and The Rhythm Method.
Nicholas Tolle is one of America's premiere cimbalom artists. In 2019 he won 3rd prize in the Budapest Music Center International Cimbalom Competition. He has performed as soloist in Pierre Boulez’ Repons with the composer conducting at the Lucerne Festival in 2009, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Péter Eötvös in 2012, and with Steven Schick at UC San Diego in 2017. Based in Boston, MA, he plays regularly with such groups as the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Emmanuel Music, and Sound Icon, and with his own group, the Ludovico Ensemble. He has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, New York Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Signal. He is featured performing Boulez’s Repons in the EuroArts documentary Inheriting the Future of Music: Pierre Boulez and the Lucerne Festival Academy, and in Kurtág's music for cimbalom and voice on soprano Susan Narucki's 2019 album The Edge of Silence, which was nominated for a 2020 Grammy award. His recording of Kurtág’s Seven Songs from The Edge of Silence was named one of the best classical tracks of 2019 by the New York Times.