Hovhannisyan’s path from clarinet to saxophone and the search for a personal voice.
Hovhannes Hovhannisyan was born in Vagharshapat, Armenia and his first steps in music were taken at the local music school. He speaks about those early years with rare honesty. He does not pretend that he was one of those children who knew from the beginning that music would become a calling. At a young age, he cannot say exactly what first inspired him to enter this world. More likely, it was a path shaped under the supervision and encouragement of his parents. But that beginning, however ordinary it may have seemed at the time, became the foundation of a life in music.
His first instrument was the clarinet. For many musicians, the first instrument becomes only a stepping stone; for him, it became the starting point of a serious musical journey. After graduating from music school, he continued his studies at the Romanos Melikyan State College of Music in Yerevan, entering the wind instruments department and specializing in clarinet. That stage of his education gave him discipline, technical grounding, and the chance to deepen his understanding of performance. Later, he was admitted to the Yerevan State Conservatory, where his artistic path continued to mature.
For a while, the clarinet defined his work. He tried himself in several symphonic and philharmonic orchestras, performing classical music on the instrument and even working in Russia. Those experiences gave him a close view of the professional demands of orchestral music, and they also helped him understand his instincts more clearly. Over time, he realized that while the clarinet had been his first instrument, the saxophone felt more personal. It was not just an alternative instrument; it was a different kind of emotional language. He felt more at home in it, more connected to its tone, its flexibility, and its expressive power. What began as a later development, during his conservatory years, eventually became the instrument that best reflected his inner voice.
When asked which artists shaped his sound, he does not name a few famous names and stop there. Instead, he describes a broader process of listening and absorbing. He has listened to many musicians, both contemporary and retro, and from all of them, he tried to build something of his own. That answer says a lot about his artistic character. He is not interested in imitation for its own sake. He is interested in transformation. The sounds he heard over time became raw material for a more personal identity, one that would be impossible to copy because it was built through experience rather than formula.
The question of what pushed him toward becoming a musician leads him back to a simple but powerful answer: love for the instrument. In his case, that means the saxophone and its attractive, compelling sound. He does not present music as a romantic myth or a distant destiny. He presents it as something felt physically and emotionally — something he was drawn to because of the instrument’s voice and the way it could speak without words. In childhood, the people who inspired him most were his mother and father. Their role was not abstract. They were the first emotional support behind the path he eventually chose.
At this point in his career, Hovhannisyan says he is not primarily a composer of original music. He is, first and foremost, a performing musician. His work centers on interpreting and performing different pieces on the saxophone, shaping familiar and unfamiliar music through his own touch. But that stage is not the end of the story. He already has goals to move into composition in the near future. He wants to create his own music and perform his works as well. That ambition suggests an artist who is still evolving, still searching for the next level of self-expression.
His style, he says, is multi-genre. That is an important part of how he sees himself. For him, the saxophone is not tied to one musical world. It can live in different styles, different moods, and different settings. Unlike musicians who remain within a single genre, he believes he can use the saxophone across many forms of music. That flexibility is not just technical; it is part of his identity. It reflects a musician who is not trying to be boxed in by labels.
If there is one song he is most proud of, he cannot point to it. There is no single piece he treats as the final answer to his career so far. His repertoire keeps expanding, and new saxophone pieces are constantly being added. That ongoing growth seems to matter more to him than one fixed highlight. For him, music is not a finished monument but a living process.
What he values most in live performance is the connection with the audience. The moment when the music is not just performed but received, when listeners genuinely respond, feel, and appreciate what he is doing, is what gives live work its meaning. That exchange between performer and audience is not a side detail. It is one of the most important parts of why he keeps performing. He does not just play for sound; he plays for connection, for emotion, and for recognition.
If asked what he wants people to feel when listening to his music, his answer is direct: inspiration. That word carries weight in his story. It is not about showing off technique or proving something. It is about leaving people with energy, feeling, and perhaps a sense that music can lift them beyond the ordinary.
Like many artists, he has faced disappointment. In fact, he names it as one of the biggest challenges in his career. But he speaks about it not as a defeat but rather as something that has been overcome step by step. That detail gives his story its human edge. Success, in his telling, has not come without setbacks, uncertainty, and emotional struggle. The difference is that he kept moving.
So far, the most memorable moment of Hovhaness’s career came in 2023 when he performed his first solo concert as a saxophonist at the Ani Music Hall in the center of Yerevan. For any musician, a first solo concert is a defining moment. For him, it was proof that the path he had taken from clarinet student to saxophone performer had led somewhere real. He hopes that performance will not remain an isolated memory but the beginning of a continuing journey.
Today, he is still working. He continues to build his program, add new music to his repertoire, and improve himself on the saxophone. There is no sense of arrival in his story, only movement. He is still becoming the musician he wants to be.
His advice to young musicians is simple, but not empty: overcome disappointment in every difficult moment of life, and keep going in music. It is the kind of advice that sounds earned, not borrowed. And that may be the most authentic part of his story, where the sense that every note, every stage, and every setback has helped shape not only his sound but also the person behind it.