Larisa Sargsyan lives in Hadrut. She is a solo singer and one of the founding members of the Karabakh Song and Dance Ensemble; she has been with the ensemble for more than four decades.

When the Song and Dance Ensemble was being founded in 1957, talented boys and girls from all the regions of Karabakh were invited. “They invited me because they already knew me,” Larisa Sargsyan explained. “They knew me from the Olympiads and festivals in which I had participated.” They chose twenty-two of the participants in the competition, although, as Mrs. Sargsyan said, it was very difficult to choose the best of the best.

She remembered her first meeting with the famous singer Arev Baghdasaryan, an Armenian of Karabakh origin. After the ensemble was founded, Baghdasaryan came to Stepanakert and organized what we would call a workshop today. “She told me, ‘Larisa jan, whatever concert you may perform at, whatever the other songs you choose, you must always sing Nakhshun Baji – that is the symbol of our Karabakh.”

The singer has an extensive repertoire, but she has performed Nakhshun Baji at every single concert since 1958. This is a touching song about a beautiful woman from Karabakh who is pasturing her cows and happens to join a party. Larisa Sargsyan's life also changed unexpectedly, with the start of the Karabakh war. Her family took refuge in a basement in Stepanakert, her 16-year-old son went to the battlefront and returned safe and sound by the grace of God, after serving in the army for five years. Everything has changed except for her talent for song.

“We were in the basement,” recalled Mrs. Sargsyan, “when they came one day and said that we were going to tour the army units and sing for the soldiers. We left. Throughout the journey I saw devastated villages and ruined vehicles. My heart sank at the emptiness around me, but I knew that the soldiers needed my song.” Larisa Sargsyan said that the public television channel in Karabakh still had clips from her concerts where one could see how her singing inspired the soldiers defending their motherland.

However, song was a source of inspiration not just for the soldiers but for her – the singer with decades of experience – as well. “Before that, we were used to singing and dancing on stage, hearing the praise and applause of the audience. But when I came to the soldiers, I realized that it was my own fear I was overcoming,” said Larisa Sargsyan.

After returning to Stepanakert from the battlefront, she decided to stop living in the basement. “Although I had been afraid of going, I felt that I had done something for my motherland. Until that day, I had done nothing for my country. I felt my contribution only on that day. And since then I have not lived in that basement, I have lived at home – my home. Our group visited soldiers every day.”

After the war, Larisa Sargsyan went to her native Hadrut to work at the invitation of the administrative body of the Folk Instruments Ensemble at the House of Culture. “They invited me and I accepted with great pleasure, because this is my land. It's true, the living conditions here are not the best, but I forget all my problems when I am on stage,” said Mrs. Sargsyan.

There are many problems in Hadrut, but in the singer's opinion, the lack of water is foremost. “We have water once every three days. When there is water, we collect it. We collect three days worth of water at a time.”

She considered this and the other inconveniences to be temporary, because a nation who have seen war and emerged victorious could not allow themselves to be overcome by such domestic problems. “We have Mother Armenia, and a nation that has representatives all around the world. We must join forces and work hand in hand so that Hadrut blooms forever, and is always beautiful.”