
Sona Hovhannisyan in her office of Conservatoire. Sona Hovhannisyan is a conductor of “Hover” State Chamber choir. She is the first female rector in the history of the Komitas State Conservatoire of Yerevan.
The world began with the eyes of my grandmother, under the half smiling, deep feeling gazes of my uncles, in the beauty and endless care of my mother, and went on… went on…
I don’t know why Mrs. Shushik was good, but Mrs. Tamar was bad… and later, this one thing – wonderful, the other one – no… After Chekhov’s puzzled thoughts about this I understood that there was no need to make it clear… and I wholeheartedly loved the wonderful and the unparalleled, the unparalleled of our melody “Havik” and all the unparalleled of the world. There is no more valuable occupation, than this… I entered the world of music. There began my numerous hugs and quarrels with life. But happiness was omnipotent… it cured the unrecoverable.
Only the spring lived with people was left, everything else vanished… After the loss of my friends of young years and the longing for them there shines only the excitement of my vital days, row by row, bead by bead the “crumbs” of our Komitas, the clear air and the dangerous creations of my “Hover”. The happiness is very exciting and indecipherable, they haunt you all the time and remind about themselves.
Today I remember my thousand percent happy moments, when I watched our stitched mountains from above and understood that I was 18 and I was full inside… then – 25… later – 40… and that was not attached to what life poured on my head, it was not attached to anything, that used to live in me despite my well-being, or despite the evil people did to me, despite all my mistakes… It always shines… My ruined soul… It’s like that…

The director of the opera performance “Sasuntsi Davit” (David of Sassoun) is working with the choir for the staging. Yerevan, 2017.
Sona is discussing some details with a member of the choir – Areg – before the concert.
After the author’s evening of the Armenian composer Arthur Avanesov, held on February 19. The choral works of Avanesov are much loved by “Hover” choir. Yerevan, 2019.

The reception of the Conservatoire is full of flowers. It was Sona’s birthday days ago.

Besides being the master of her work Sona is a wonderful cook at home, and all the people around her can prove her endless hospitality. Her small, but openhearted apartment is capable of hosting a whole choir, often without any serious reason.

One of the few photos on the walls of Sona’s apartment – the small portrait of Komitas. The program of “Hover” choir is rich in multi-genre music of all the nations, but Komitas sounds especially warm in the performance of “Hover”.

Sona and famous jazz musician Vahagn Hayrapetyan at the rehearsals of a joint project.
Hover State Chamber Choir artistic director and conductor Sona Hovhannisyan appeared with a lecture on the Armenian monodic music in the frame of “Polyfolia” International Choir Festival. During the event “Sweet is the Moon” by Komitas was performed.
France, 2010

Sona’s desk.

The photo of Shostakovich her uncle has gifted her. Sona at home.

At the hall of Krzysztof Penderecki during the rehearsal. Luslawice, Poland, 2015.
Much has changed after Sona’s appointment in the position of the rector of YSC. The conversations with the students with the lecturers and invited professionals often become a non formal, effortless, close and intimate tea drinking procedure, which connects the students to the institution, and the classes become enjoyable.
Sona at the “tea drinking”.

Weekend cleaning and tree planting in the yard of the Conservatoire.

Sona is talking to the member of the law department of the Conservatoire.

“Hover” choir at world-known composer Krzysztof Penderecki’s house in Luslawice. Poland, 2015.
Text by Sona Hovhannisyan