Hovsep Grigoryan has been making duduks for more than fifty years. The varpet (master craftsman) was born in 1928 in the village of Sepasar in the region of Ghukasyan, the eldest out of nine children.

Hovsep’s grandfather would play the tar at various social functions in the village and taught his eldest grandson how to play music on an old duduk as accompaniment. The boy soon showed a keen interest in the instrument and his father decided to buy him a duduk and a zurna.

These instruments were made right in the village and were quite expensive items to buy. Hovsep’s father was forced to sell one of their two cows in order to pay for the one duduk and one zurna. At the age of fourteen Hovsep was sent to Gyumri to take duduk lessons from the local master players.

Gradually the young boy taught his brothers how to play the zurna, the shvi and the dhol. They soon formed a group that would play at village weddings, burials and other gatherings. They soon took their act on the road and began performing in neighboring villages. Hovsep never stopped playing, even while serving in the army. Of course, he switched over to the clarinet while in the military.

He began making the instrument sort of by accident. One day he and some friends were crouched around a tonir (a pit dug into the earth for cooking). In his hand he was twirling around a becha, one of the two component parts of a zurna, which he suddenly fell into the tonir’s flames and burned. Without that piece you can’t play the zurna, so he was forced to fashion a new one out of a thick broom handle.

He got so much pleasure out of the experience that he decided to learn how to make a duduk, shvi and zurna on his own.

Even while making these instruments, he never ceased touring with his brothers and playing in the surrounding villages. He started to record the music as well. On Kirov Street in Gyumri there was a store called “Jrjran”. The wood floor in the store was so old that it would creak when tread upon. (In Armenian, the verb “jrjral” means to creak or squeak). Next to this store Hovsep opened a recording studio that’s still there. With the money he earned from performing and recording Hovsep was able to buy a car, the first in his village.

Hovsep Grigoryan passed away in 2004 after suffering from asthma. In the last few years of his life he neither played nor made any instruments. Given his breathing problems, the wood dust produced in the process was off-limits.

Hovsep spent some thirty years of his life in Yerevan. During this period he continued making instruments. It was in Yerevan that he met Djivan Gasparyan and soon was honored with the title “duduk maker for Djivan Gasparyan”.

Today, it is Hovsep’s son, Artur Grigoryan, who has inherited the gift for making duduks and the title of “duduk maker for Djivan”.

Artur says that when his father was making duduks in Yerevan for Djivan Gasparyan the master virtuoso wasn’t as famous as today. There were periods when there was no real demand for the duduk and that craftsmen went through “pretty hard times”.

Duduk players and fans alike from around the world get in touch with Artur by e-mail. (His website is: www.armenianduduk.am). Some want to come to Armenia to learn to play the instrument and others want to invite duduk masters from Armenia to their country to give lessons. Many place orders for duduks made by Artur.

Artur states that 50% of the success of any duduk player is based on the instrument itself: in other words on the craftsmanship of the duduk maker.

Artur adds that, “ The other 50% is also very important. However well made the instrument if it’s not played with “soul” then the music produced is not pleasing to the ear. But the instrument must possess the capability to reflect whatever the player wants to inject in it.”

Artur confirms that there’s a world of difference between playing and making a duduk. “A good player must have sensitive, delicate fingers. The fingers of someone who turns the wood get rough over time. If you’re a master duduk craftsman you can never be a good duduk player.”