The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble was founded in 2008 by the Armenian musician Levon Eskenian with the objective of performing ethnographically authentic adaptations of the music by Georges Gurdjieff that has been handed down in piano transcriptions by his student, Thomas de Hartmann. The ensemble, which has performed in Europe and Asia, consists of leading Armenian folk music instrumentalists who play the duduk (a woodwind instrument), the saz (a string instrument), the santoor (a cimbalom) and the dhol (a double-headed drum), among other things. The German label ECM Records published the ensemble’s CD Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff, which was highly praised, receiving the Dutch Edison and the National Music Award of Armenia. It was also picked as CD of the week by radio stations around the world. Georges Gurdjieff is known in the West as one of the greatest spiritual personalities of the 20th century. Levon Eskonian, the artistic director of The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble, has chosen and arranged works by Gurdjieff that have their roots in Armenian, Greek, Arab, Kurdish, Assyrian and Caucasian spiritual and traditional music for Eastern folk music instruments. The ensemble’s new repertoire includes the music of Komitas.