Doctor of Arts, musicologist-medievalist, Honored Worker of Art of RA, Head of the Folk Music Department of the Institute of Arts of the National Academy of Sciences of RA, Professor at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Komitas Museum-Institute, Artistic Director of the ‟Geghard” Vocal Ensemble. Navoyan is the author of more than 40 articles and the following monographs: The Origin of the Tał Genre and Free Musical Mentality in the Armenian Medieval Professional Song Art (Yerevan, 2001), Fragments from the History of Armenian Music (Yerevan, 2009). His research is focused on Armenian medieval music, the eight-mode system in the Armenian music, Armenian art music, etc.

KOMITAS’S ROLE AND SIGNIFICANCE
IN THE HISTORY OF ARMENIAN CULTURE

Komitas is the founder of the Armenian national school of music composition. This characterization already presupposes the final crystallization of complex processes of enrooting, localizing and creating the national artistic forms of a number of typical realities of European musical culture. It is, in general, one of the best examples of East-West cultural organic synthesis.
On the other hand, the solution of these complex problems had a solid foundation for research and scientific generalizations, on which the features of national musical thinking and their comparability and adequacy with other key elements of Armenian culture were clarified. As a result, Komitas’s formulation of the national character of music was one of the most important indicators of Armenian identity and was formulated by Komitas as a component of national self-consciousness.
In this sense, Komitas and his heritage not only have a significant place in the history of music, but also have a broader historical significance.