Harold G. Hagopian is an American violinist, entrepreneur,

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and founder of Traditional Crossroads world music record label in 1993.

Biography

Hagopian is the son of Armenian-American oud virtuoso

Richard Hagopian Richard Avedis Hagopian (born April 3, 1937) is an Armenian-American oud player and a traditional Armenian musician. Hagopian achieved popularity in the 1960s and 70s as a member of the Kef Time Band, performing ''kef'' music, a dance-oriented ...

. His paternal grandparents fled the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

and settled in California. He was raised on the family’s grape farm in Fresno where he discovered his love for music at a very young age. He was playing the drum along with his father at the age of 4 and continued his interest in music until he found his passion in violin playing at just 5 years old. Hagopian graduated from The Juilliard School in 1988 with a B.M. in classical violin.

Career

Musician

During his undergraduate studies, Hagopian performed with the Juilliard orchestra. He also went to Russia where he practiced violin with local musicians in a Haydn quartet. In 1994, he performed with the Tulare County Symphony in California. The late

Alan Hovhaness Alan Hovhaness (; March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an American-Armenian composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and ...

had written a violin concerto specifically for Hagopian, which he was able to premiere during a performance. Hagopian also plays the kanun and

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

, and has served as the director of the Cornell Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Music Ensemble (CMEME) at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. Hagopian has frequently accompanied his father, Richard Hagopian, in performances in the past. He has performed in a number of ensembles with prominent Balkan artists such as

Yuri Yunakov Yuri Yunakov is a Turkish-Bulgarian Roma musician, who is famous for participating in the development of Bulgarian wedding music, and introducing it to the United States. He grew up in a Muslim family in Thrace, and started playing music as a boy ...

, and performed with Fazil's Night Club orchestra which also included Omar Faruk Tekbilek. Hagopian is also a consultant to the

Silk Road Project Silkroad, formerly the Silk Road Project, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization, initiated by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and ...

founded by Yo-Yo Ma.

Business ventures

Hagopian is responsible for bringing the Heifetz violin mute back to prominence. He co-founded a company which manufactures and sells the mutes, which had been discontinued in the 1960s. He's also the owner of "Virtuoso Resources", a violin & cello rental shop on the Upper West Side.

Producer

After he completed his undergraduate study at Juilliard, Hagopian took a job at P.P.I. Recording in New York City in order to learn more about the recording industry. This job served as a launchpad for Harold to further his career. He often used the studio to make recordings during his personal time. Hagopian also made records with his father for the British Arc label and Smithsonian/Folkways. Hagopian cites Jascha Heifetz as one of his major influences in his career and his reason for procuring a job at RCA. He was offered a position as a reissue producer at

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

BMG BMG may refer to: Organizations * Music publishing companies: ** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008 *** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...

Classics in 1990 after demonstrating his vast knowledge of the Heifetz recordings, style and repertoire in an interview with RCA producer Jack Pfeiffer. He was ultimately responsible for remastering and re-releasing over 1,000 classical music records in about just 10 years of his career at RCA.

Traditional Crossroads

Hagopian used the same principles and techniques he had used in remastering and re-releasing classical music and applied them to world music. He founded Traditional Crossroads with

Rounder Records Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Al ...

in 1993 on this basis. Traditional Crossroads has been able to sponsor major US tours for dozens of international artists and the label has released over 150 albums. Hagopian continued working for RCA until 2002 despite the success of Traditional Crossroads.

Recognition

Hagopian’s works have been nominated for Grammys several times. His work on the Artur Rubinstein Collection later earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Historical Reissue. In addition, Hagopian received Grammy nominations for ''Fritz Kreisler: The Complete RCA Recordings''. The National Association of Record Distributors awarded Best String Recording of the Year to ''The Art of Taksim'', the first recording by Traditional Crossroads. ''The Voice of Komitas Vardapet'' received a French archival restoration award and Night Silence Desert received the best world music album from the Association for Independent Music (AFIM) in 2001. He and his wife Cynthia Rogers have two sons, Felix Hagopian-Rogers and Simon Hagopian-Rogers.

References

External links

Traditional Crossroads Official Site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hagopian, Harold Juilliard School alumni American people of Armenian descent Record producers from California Musicians from Fresno, California Living people Year of birth missing (living people)