The Armenian Museum of America and the Institute of Art of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences are proud to present the legacy of Komitas as a composer and his influence on international and Armenian Music, The Armenian Weekly reports.

The lecturer will be Dr. Mher Navoyan of the Art institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. The piano performance of the works of Komitas will be by Professor Lilit Karapetian Shugarian of New England Conservatory.

The program will take place on Nov. 5, at 2 p.m., at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown. It is funded by a generous grant from the Dadourian Foundation.

Recognized as one of the pioneers of ethnomusicology,Komitas was an Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer, and choirmaster. He is considered the founder of the Armenian national school of music.

Navoyan is the best-known authority on Komitas Vartabed. In 1993, he graduated from the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan as an orchestral performer, and in 1994 as a musicologist. Since 1995 he has been a professor at Yerevan State Conservatory, as lecturer of “History of Armenian Music,” “The Basis of East Classical Music,” “Armenian Sacred Music,” and “History of World Music” (History of Europe Music of the second part of the XIX and the first part of the XX centuries). Since 2000, he has been a supervisor of a specialized course for students of musicological department. Since 2011, he has been the prorector for research affairs, and since 2015 the head of the scientific council at Komitas Museum-Institute.