I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment

I AM HE WHOSE LIFE AND SOUL ARE TORMENT Presented by Other Minds Other Minds opens this year's festival with the world premiere of a full-length multimedia piece exploring the life of visionary Georgian-born Soviet-Armenian director Sergei Parajanov, who was persecuted, censored, and imprisoned despite his major contributions to film. Composed by Joseph Bohigian for solo voice, duduk, and electronics, with video projection, the piece is built around multilingual text from 18th-century ashugh (bard) Sayat Nova — the subject of Parajanov's 1969 film The Color of Pomegranates. Vocalist Khatchadour Khatchadourian performs alongside the music-technology group Ensemble Decipher, which layers live electronic manipulation over field recordings of folk musicians from across the South Caucasus, combining Sayat Nova's existing melodies with newly composed ones. Artists Tara Baghdassarian and Karo Yagjian contribute to the visual and artistic elements of the piece. DATE Thursday, October 8, 2026 TIME 8:00 PM VENUE Brava Theater 2781 24th St, San Francisco, CA 94110