Ofelya Hambardzumyan was born in Yerevan. During her childhood, she used to sing and lure listeners with her great voice when performing with the folk instruments ensemble of the pioneer-schoolchildren’s city palace. Prominent singer Araksya Gyurzadyan says she was one of the first people who listened to the schoolchild, approached and praised her, and called on her to receive a musical education and become a professional singer. The future singer graduated from the Romanos Melikyan Music School and was invited to the Radio’s folk instruments ensemble where she spent an entire life dedicating herself to the ensemble directed by Aram Merangulyan. The ensemble stayed true to Armenian folk song, as well as contributed to the creation and dissemination of composers’ songs. Like many Armenian singers, Ofelya Hambardzumyan also sang songs composed by Armenian classical and contemporary troubadours, took a glance at composers’ songs and always strived to instill in each song her own expressiveness and particularities of her voice range.

The songs composed by notable medieval composer Sayat-Nova were the first on Hambardzumyan’s list of songs. Sayat-Nova’s songs were usually sung by men, including Vagharshak Sahakyan and Glakho Zakaryan who taught other singers and established rich traditions. Ofelya Hambardzumyan went against that tradition and presented “Yes Kanchum Em Lalayin”, “Chka Kizi Nman” and other songs that required a singer to master the art of performing, have a great voice and knowledge of the traditions of troubadours. Alongside Sayat-Nova’s songs, Hambardzumyan also sang songs by Farhad, Miskin Burji, Jivani and Sheram. Each of these troubadours was different with his school and principles and one needed to stay loyal to the melody. Ofelya Hambardzumyan followed the ways of reproducing the sounds and the variety of melodies.

Ofelya Hambardzumyan achieved great success with her performances of the songs by troubadours Havasi, Ashot and Shahen and made those performances turn into a milestone for all singers. Troubadour Ashot confessed that he had created the songs “Ojakhum” (At the Hearth), “Du Tsakhkavar Zangezuri” (You Flower of Zangezur) and other songs especially for Ofelya Hambardzumyan. Shahen wrote his poem “Elinar” for Ofelya Hambardzumyan and composed it based on the singer’s singing attributes. Many female and even male singers performed the song “Ojakhum”, but Hambardzumyan’s performance was unsurpassed. Other unsurpassed performances were the performances of several songs based on Avetik Isahakyan’s poems that showed the tragedy in the poem.

There are many female Armenian singers of the 20th century, including Araksya Gyurzadyan, Shoghik Mkrtchyan, Lusik Koshyan, Varduhi Khachatryan, Yevgenia Basyan, Astghik Kamalyan, Flora Khorenyan, Valya Samvelyan and others, but Araksya Gyurzadyan and Ofelya Hambardzumyan were the ones that became the unique peaks, the undefeatables that led Armenian performing arts to new heights.

The eighty-year old notable singer, the living classic continues with her daughter, Tatevik Hovhannisyan, is pleased with her daughter’s successes. Even though the singer has not performed on stage for the past 15 years, her performances are played on radio and television, reach all four corners of the globe, inspire and help Armenians living abroad preserve the Armenian identity.

Levon Mutafyan