Alan Hovhaness

He married six times. Around 1934, he got married to Martha Mott Davis with whom he had a daughter namely Jean Christina Hovhaness. In 1947, he married his third wife Serafina Ferrante , a dancer. He married for the sixth time in 1977.

He passed away in Seattle due to a prolonged stomach ailment. He was survived by his wife coloratura soprano Hinako Fujihara Hovhaness and daughter Jean.

The archives of his scores, recordings, photographs and correspondence are available at Harvard University, University of Washington, Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and Yerevan’s State Museum of Arts and Literature in Armenia

Born in Somevile, Massachusetts, Alan Hovhaness was the son of Haroutioun Hovanes Chakmakjian and Madeleine Scott. His previous name was Alan Vaness Chakmakjian. His father was a chemistry professor at Tufts College.

After his mother’s death in 1930, he started using the surname ‘Hovaness’. He began showing interest in music at an early age. He did his first composition at the age of four and was inspired by Franz Schubert. He attended Tufts College.

In 1932, he won the Conservatory's Samuel Endicott prize for composing a symphony entitled, Sunset Symphony. In July 1934, he travelled to Finland to meet with Jean Sibelius, a renowned composer of that country.

In 1936, he attended a performance in Boston by the dance troupe of Uday Shankar, an Indian dance troupe which developed his interest in Indian music. During the period of 1930s, he was a part of FDR’s federal WPA’s Federal Music Project.

He developed an interest in Armenian culture and music in 1940 and worked as an organist for St. James Armenian Apostolic Church in Watertown, Massachusetts where he remained for the next ten years.

During the middle part of 1940, along with his two friends who were interested in Indian classical music, he used to discuss about spirituality and musical matters. During this period, he learnt to play sitar.

In 1940s, the members of the immigrant Armenian community namely the Friends of Armenian Music Committee helped him by providing sponsorship for several of his music concerts in New York.

His first work which made use of an innovative technique was Lousadzak. Appearing in 1945, its technique involved instruments which repeated phrases in uncoordinated fashion which led to the producing of a ‘carpet’ of sounds.