Anahit Papayan

The Armenian soprano and conductor Anahit Papayan is a graduate of the Vocal Department of the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, where she studied with L. Mekertchyan and G. Geghamyan, graduating in 2006.

As a child, Anahit Papayan was a member of the choir Little Singers of Armenia, under the artistic directorship of Tigran Hekekyan. From 1996 to 2000 she was a soloist of the Saghmos Choir under conductor Lilit Sargsyan. From 1998 to 2000 she was a member and soloist of the Armenian National Radio Chamber Choir, under the artistic directorship of Tigran Hekekyan.

In 2001 she founded the Geghard Vocal Ensemble. She has since served as a conductor and soloist in the Holy Geghard Monastery, and toured in concert with the ensemble to Germany, Austria, Finland, the Czech Republic, France, Belarus, Poland, Italy, Lebanon, Russia and Sweden. The Geghard Vocal Ensemble has also sung at various international festivals.

Anahit Papayan was a soloist of the State Centre for Armenian Sacred Music from 2004 to 2012, and director of the institution from 2012 to 2020. Since 2011 she has conducted the pupils’ choir at Ayb High School, and since 2020 she has worked as a conductor at the Komitas Museum-Institute.

Her repertory includes Armenian sacred music, and works by Armenian, Russian and Western European classical composers. Along with her CDs Armenian Lullaby Jewels and De Profundis (a disc of Armenian sacred monodies also featuring Lusine Ghazaryan and the Hover Chamber Choir), she has recorded Armenian spiritual and folk songs for the project ‘The Armenian National Musical Treasury’ set up by the Renaissance Cultural and Intellectual Foundation.