Christie

Christie-Gkaiane Sochakian Kanska is a Greek Armenian born, songwriter & performer.Christie was born in the capital of Armenia in Erevan. She began playing piano when she was seven years old. She studied the classical piano in the Music School at the capital of Armenia. She loved Jazz music and this lead her to study at the Modern Jazz College in Erevan for 4 years parallel she studied drawing in the School of Fine Arts. During teaching at the Conservatory Philipos Nakas in Grecce she was awarded with the scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. From 2001-2004 she were study at Berklee College of Music, where she complete her Batchelor degree in Professional Music. During this time she participate in many concerts at the Berklee and out of the College She was taken part as a soloist with Armenians Concert in many concerts and operas, performances and she was collaborated with the national Chorus of Erevan. In 1995 she has performed as the conductor of the Children Chorus of the Greek Embassy of Armenia and her children choir were participating in Athens. Big passion to music and children leads her to compose music for children . Since 1995 Thessalonica has been her permanent residence where she has been working as a vocal teacher of modern and jazz singing. She has collaborated with the New Odeon of Thessalonica and Filippos Nakas Odeion where she has been working as a piano and voice teacher. In the meantime she has been taking part in several concerts of Greek and Jazz repertory as a pianist and vocalist. She also participated as a soloist in jazz concerts within the frame of the manifestation held in Thessalonica as the Cultural capital of Europe for the year 1997. She participated in T.V. musical shows as well as in a production of ET3 (Channel of North Greece) together with Alexandro Triantafillou, entitled “Dia tauta ego thrino”. In the open theater of the “Odeion of Ancient Market” she has performed under her own orchestration, arranged Armenian folk songs. In 2005 in Boston she produced her CD “Who Needs Love” with original music and lyrics. She collaborated in that CD with world known musicians as Jamey Haddad, Leo Blanco, Zdenek Kansky, Spiros Exaras, and Rick Dimuzio. She was fortuned to meet her husband Zdenek Kansky in Boston and she got married in 2005. They compose and perform music together. From 2005-2007 together they did two contracts with Royal Caribbean International and they where performing and traveling in Canada, Mexico, Alaska, USA, Columbia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Panama, Verging Islands... During this period Christie composed "Music of the Seas". It's a beautiful compositions for piano. Christie & Zdenek with their “World Jazz Group” in 2006 were participating in many concerts and festivals in Czech Republic. They perform in jazz club “Reduta” in Prague also they perform in movie festivals, collaborating with musicians from Austria and Czech Republic. After lots of traveling in 2007 Christie came back to Thessaloniki and she introduced her new music on the radio FM 102 of ERT and TV 100. In Prague and CZ with Zdenek they performed as a duo and they as well create band playing their original music at clubs and festivals.In 2008 Christie performed with the big Band "Aldis" at Congress Center in Hradec Kralove singing Jazz. Christie captures her audience with her honesty and artistic mastery. She expresses her love for people, nature, and life through her unique gift for the languages of music and poetry.