From the press : GROONG-(Asbarez) – Famous Armenian Singer Passes Away
YEREVAN (Armenpress) — Prominent Armenian singer Hovanness Badalian passed away on August 19 at the age of 77. Badalian was born in 1924 in the Iranian village of Shavari. His family repatriated to Armenia after the end of World War II. He sang Armenian folk music for more than half a century. There were no Armenians anywhere in the world that did not enjoy the art of Hovanness Badalian.
Badalian was also a splendid teacher having trained numerous of singers who now teach at the Yerevan Conservatory. “We lost a great artist. He was the father of Armenian folk songs. We lost very honest man. I am shocked,” said Armenian composer Vardan Ajemian. President Robert Kocharian send his condolences to Badalian’s family Monday. The special government commission, headed by Minister of Culture Roland Sharoyan will organize Hovanness Badalian’s funeral.
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My earliest memory of his voice is an image
… my grandmother, Hovanness’s mother, sitting next to our short wave radio tuned to ‘Yerevann e khosum’; and as the announcer would say Horovel, ‘kataroom e Hovanness Badaliane’, I would watch my grandmother’s face; sometimes I would see a few drops of tears roll down her cheeks. I did not comprehend everything in those days. I liked his singing but I was mad at him for making my grandma Nonia so unhappy. Years later, when things were clearer for me, I could no longer get mad at him. And when the political climate was more conducive, Nonia, in her eighties, left Iran and went to live the rest of her days with her youngest, Ohaness, in Armenia
I met Hovanness for the first time in America during his first concert tour of this country. Then came other concerts when he was able to stay a few days with his family, my father, his brother Gagik, rarely alone, usually with another performer, radiating his persona beyond his person to those who called him Hovig
My freshest memory of his voice is the image of him sitting next to my father with all of us listening as they would tell stories of their childhood. And I remember marveling at the man who went from being Ohanness to Hovanness and to simply Hovig
I loved Hovnness as I am sure many did; each in our own way and each being loved by him in turn. The Hovanness Badalian Music Fund, which bares his name, is in reality in the name of all of us. Please keep it among your cherished thoughts
Tatoul Badalian, nephew
2004
Boston, Massachusetts