Wedding Songs

He was born in the village of Vahagni (now in Lori Province, Republic of Armenia). In 1981 he entered the composition and choral conducting departments of the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. In 1986 he graduated from three faculties: composition, conducting and musicology. Alongside his studies he taught at a music school and worked at the Methodological Centre of Folk Art of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia as a senior researcher, and then at the State Conservatory as head of the folklore department. He taught at the "Mkhitar Sebastatsi" Educational Complex and later headed its music school. In 1992–94 he was in the USA, where he carried out various cultural programmes with the Armenian community. In 1995 he worked at the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Armenia as head of the Programme and Methodology Department, and in 1998 at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia as head of the Department for the "Preservation, Development and Dissemination of National Culture"; from 2000, with interruptions, he worked at a school as head of music programmes, and later became a member of the Board of Trustees of the "Dar" Foundation. He is a member of the board of the Union of Songwriters of Armenia.