Harold Hagopian

Harold G. Hagopian is an American violinist, entrepreneur, record producer and founder of Traditional Crossroads world music record label in 1993.

Biography Hagopian is the son of Armenian-American oud virtuoso Richard Hagopian. His paternal grandparents fled the Armenian genocide 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. and has served as the director of the Cornell Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Music Ensemble (CMEME) at Cornell University.

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.

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.

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.