On November 25, 1986, Bedros Alahaydoian was in Boston, engaged in collecting material for his musical collection from the local community. There, he met Dr. Elizabeth Gregory, who was a descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors from Van, and had been a friend of Yenovk Der Hagopian’s, a minstrel and a native of Van.



Dr. Elizabeth Gregory put all musical recordings she had at the disposal of Mr. Alahaydoian. These included songs performed by Yenovk. Dr. Gregory also shared with Mr. Alahaydoian all information she had on Yenovk, and details of the friendship that she and he had shared.



During this meeting, Dr. Gregory herself performed songs from Van and provided an intimate account of how and whence she had learned these songs.



Yenovk Der Hagopian (1900-1966) was born in the village of Ishkhanikom in the area of Van (present-day Bakımlı, on the shores of Lake Van, south-west of the city of Van). He was a minstrel, musician, and sculptor. Yenovk’s grandfather had been a minstrel, and his father had been the priest of the Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar Island. During the Genocide, the family was rescued thanks to American missionaries and found refuge in Yerevan. In 1916, Yenovk received some education in art in Tbilisi, and in 1918-1923 he was employed as an administrator in the Yerevan and Nor Bayazid orphanages of the Near East Relief Foundation. In February 1921, he participated in the uprising against the communist regime in Armenia, and was wounded in the leg. The bullet that struck him was never removed from his body, and as a result, he suffered from a limp for the rest of his life.



In 1923 he emigrated to the United States, and settled on the east coast, in the state of Massachusetts. In 1948, he married Nvart Kalarchian.



According to Dr. Elizabeth Gregory, in the 1930s, when she was 13 years old, Yenovk and Elizabeth’s mother, Mayis Kachperouni, enjoyed a reputation as performers of traditional songs from Van. Every Saturday, the neighbors and the Armenian families in the area would gather in the house of Vahram and Koharig Santakordzian, in the city of Chelsea, to listen to these performances. A festive table would be laid out , stretching from the kitchen to past the threshold of the front door. Elizabeth’s mother would sit on one side of the table, and Yenovk on the other, and they would take turns singing until late into the night. It was a sort of musical duel to see which of them would run out of songs first.



According to Dr. Elizabeth Gregory, this friendship spanned many long years, and it was upon Yenovk’s advice that she, when young, alongside two sculptors, a Jewish painter, and musician-composer Alan Hovhannes, would meet on Saturday nights and go from house to house singings traditional songs from Van.



Some of Yenovk’s works of art are currently on display at the Armenian Library and Museum of America, in Watertown, Massachusetts. Among these works are oil paintings, as well as replicas of Armenian religious wood carvings.



Additional information on Yenovk Der Hagopian’s work and career can be found online at www.yenovkderhagopian.com