In what is a most wondrous story, a ten-year-old boy in war torn Armenia confidently told his piano teacher that one day he would play with jazz and gospel luminaries.

She instantly shot down his ambitions, but the boy remained steadfast and undeterred, responding defiantly “Mark this day on your calendar because one day it will happen for me.”

Flash forward to present day, a year-and-a-half after moving his family to Los Angeles to realize his dream, keyboardist Vahagn Stepanyan surrounded himself with Grammy-winning and world-class musicians, producers and engineers to record his second album, the aptly titled A New Chapter.

Stepanyan composed and arranged eight songs for the jazz fusion collection releasing May 19th, 2023.

1. “Synergy” (featuring Dave Koz)
2. “Without Limits” (featuring Mark Lettieri)
3. “Motion” (featuring Ida Nielsen)
4. “Gravity” (featuring Greg Howe and Philip Lassiter)
5. “So Good” (featuring Eric Moore)
6. “Toy”
7. “Revolution”
8. “Hold My Hand”

This intriguingly succulent new recording opens on the magnificently vibrant, dipping and soaring “Synergy” (featuring Dave Koz) and then we get the guitar-heavy “Without Limits” (featuring Mark Lettieri), the free-flowing “Motion” (featuring Ida Nielsen) and the mid-tempo foot-tapper “Gravity” (featuring Greg Howe and Philip Lassiter).

Up next is the melodic happiness that comes forth within “So Good” (featuring Eric Moore) and that is backed by the drum-led, summer’s breeze of “Toy,” the album rounding out on the slap bass rhythms within “Revolution,” closing on the aching, layered piano balladry of “Hold My Hand.”

Stepanyan began writing “A New Chapter” while traveling through Arizona and into Utah where he visited Hanksville, a place described as “Mars on Earth,” the barren, mountainous backdrop that appears on the album cover.

Stepanyan produced “A New Chapter” with Kitt Wakeley, who earlier this year won the Grammy for Best Classical Compendium for “An Adaption Story” to which Stepanyan contributed to engineering and playing keyboards.

Official Purchase Link