Ilia Mazia is an amateur musician from Jerusalem playing Armenian duduk and a variety of folk flutes. Ilia was born in St. Peterburg, Russia in 1972.
As a child he studied piano, later played tenor and baritone horns in a brass orchestra and bass guitar in a rock-band. Moving to Israel in 1991 he got fascinated by the unique local mixture of cultures and traditions from all over the world and got acquainted with the traditional music of the East.
Listening to Djivan Gasparyan’s recordings he was enchanted by the sound of the Armenian duduk. Since then he uses every opportunity to learn more about the duduk and Armenian culture. He visited Armenia twice, traveling extensively and taking duduk lessons with Mukuch Karapetian.
In Israel his teachers were Ashot Sahakyan and Dagestan-born Gavriel Nahamov. Additional sources of learning and inspiration include the recordings of Megel, Yegish Manoukian and other great Armenian masters.
In 2000-2004 he was a full-time member of the Shoom band playing duduk, saz and various folk flutes. In 2001 joined Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra as a soloist to record a piece by a contemporary Israeli composer B. Yusupov. He also played and recorded with Shani Ben Canar and Digital Samsara, SOBO band, Gavriel Hasson, virtuoso percussionist Zakhar Rafailov and others.
Recently he and jazz guitarist Dima Oradovsky put together a new duo called "Dilidjan" (see the video).
Hello dear Ilia! You know..it's amazing your sound iz fantastic! You know the famous duduk player Djivan Gasparyan? It's reallly close..you've got the soul of armenian! :) I'll be in contact with you as soon as I'll finish my exams! Keep in touch Ilia jan! :) Ashxen
A-a-a! V Pargode - eto bilo 1997 - 27 May a potom - 31 July . Tak vi tam znachit bili? :-) Zaodno vopros - a kuda vdrug Shanya V Indii ischez? A v Yerushalaime bivayu - vot ,skoro ,v Marte concert - Beit Confediratsiya ,5th of March -"RIcud Ha Lavana" Eto s Perets i Mark Eliyahu ,Nissim Lugasi ,Gilad ,Amano - Marik kak vsegda ,molodets ,so svoey Kamanchey - a phrasing ,govorit ,ot Duduka influence :-)
