Amina Figarova
{{Short description|Azerbaijani pianist and composer (born 1964)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Amina Figarova
| image = Amina Figarova.jpg
| caption = Amina Figarova in 2007
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1964|12|2|df=y}}
| birth_place = Baku, Azerbaijan
| genre = Jazz
| occupation = Musician
| instrument = Piano
| years_active = 1990s–present
| label =
| website = {{URL|aminafigarova.com}}
}}
Amina Figarova (born 1964) is an Azerbaijani jazz pianist. Trained as a classical pianist in Baku, she became interested in the local folk music, later specializing in jazz. Since the late 1980s, together with her husband, the flutist Bart Platteau, she has performed in jazz festivals around the world.{{cite web|url=http://www.dalyjazz.com/amina-figarova-sextet|title=Amina Figarova Sextet|publisher=Daly Jazz|accessdate=13 May 2018|language=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513224017/http://www.dalyjazz.com/amina-figarova-sextet|archive-date=13 May 2018|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://www.luxembourg-city.com/download/109990/leaflet-amina-figarova-sextet.pdf|title=Amina Figarova Sextet|publisher=Luxembourg City|accessdate=13 May 2018 }}
Biography
Born in Baku on 2 December 1964, Amina Figarova learnt to play the piano as a small child and began composing when only six. She attended the Baku Academy of Music where she studied to become a classical concert pianist. In 1988, while at the Moscow Jazz Festival, she was invited to study at the Rotterdam Conservatoire where she soon developed an interest in jazz. She completed her education at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
While in the United States, she became involved in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Colony in Aspen, Colorado. Together with the flutist Bart Platteau whom she later married, she began to perform in jazz concerts around the world.
Her albums September Suite and more recently Blue Whisper were inspired in part by the events of 11 September 2001 when she was in New York playing at the Blue Note Jazz Club.{{cite web|url=https://www.straight.com/music/1068936/sextets-sound-speaks-pianist-amina-figarovas-soul|title=Sextet's sound speaks to pianist Amina Figarova's soul|publisher=Straight|date=2 May 2018|accessdate=14 May 2018 |language=}} Chicago critic Neil Tesser rates her as one of the leading contemporary jazz composers both with September Suite and Come Escape With Me.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/amina-figarova-sextet/Content?oid=921937|title=Amina Figarova Sextet|author=Tesser, Neil|date=27 April 2006|publisher=Chicago Reader|accessdate=14 May 2018 |language=}}
Figarova's compositions include the musical Diana,{{cite book|last=Dietz|first=Dan|title=Off Broadway Musicals, 1910–2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fgOqZWHCLbUC&pg=PA369|year=2012|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-5731-1|pages=369–}} and Tehora which she wrote for the Israeli singer Shlomit Butbul.{{cite web|url=https://www.visitluxembourg.com/en/whats-on/event/2018/02/23/shlomit-butbul-amina-figarova|title=Shlomit Butbul & Amina Figarova|publisher=Visit Luxembourg|accessdate=14 May 2018 |language=French}} She has now released 17 albums, becoming one of DownBeat's Rising Star Composers of the year in both 2014 and 2015.{{cite web|url=https://www.americancomposers.org/2016/08/16/figarova/|title=Amina Figarova|publisher=America Composers Orchestra|accessdate=14 May 2018 |language=}}
Discography
- Rachmaninov/Skriabin/Wieniawski (Erasmus, 1993)
- Attraction (Magnetic Music, 1994){{cite web |title=Albums – Amina Figarova |url=https://www.aminafigarova.com/albums/ |website=aminafigarova.com |access-date=22 February 2021}}
- Another Me (Munich, 1996 [1998])
- Firewind (Munich, 1999)
- Jazz at the Pinehill – Live in Europe (Munich, 2000)
- Night Train (Munich, 2001)
- On Canal Street (STR/Munich, 2002) with Kim Prevost
- Come Escape with Me (Munich, 2004)
- September Suite (Munich, 2005)
- Above the Clouds (Munich, 2008)
- Sketches (Munich, 2010)
- Twelve (In+Out, 2012)
- Blue Whisper (In+Out, 2015)
- Road to the Sun (AmFi, 2018)
- Persistence (AmFi, 2020)
- Joy (AmFi, 2022)
- Suite for Africa (AmFi, 2024)
References
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Category:21st-century Azerbaijani pianists
Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States
Category:Azerbaijani women composers
Category:Azerbaijani jazz pianists
Category:Azerbaijani women pianists
Category:Baku Academy of Music alumni