Prior to His BRAVO! Series Performance, John Hodian of The Naghash Ensemble Holds Q&A with BYU Music Students
“Learn everything but use nothing.”
The simple yet self-contradictory adage seemed to be the theme of John Hodian’s Q&A with BYU music students. Hodian is the founder and director of The Naghash Ensemble, which came to BYU campus to perform on March 14. Music students had the opportunity to ask Hodian questions about his life as a prolific composer and ask for advice about the music industry.
“Learn everything as deeply as you can, especially at your age, when your mind is young,” he told the students. “But, when you sit down to write, don't think about that stuff anymore. It’s like learning a language. You have to know how to speak a language and you have to learn how to speak your own personal language.”
Hodian’s experience in the music industry is vast, ranging from his Grammy Award-winning work with the hip hop record company Rough House Records to the Armenian folk music he now produces with The Naghash Ensemble. He spent about 20 years composing music for large companies such as ABC. He then decided to work for himself and moved to Armenia. It was there, after overhearing Hasmik Baghdasaryan — current lead soprano for the Naghash Ensemble — singing in a temple, that the Naghash Ensemble was born. The group performs music written by Hodian, based on the texts of fifteenth century poet and priest Mkrtich Naghash.
“The Naghash Ensemble is really a natural synthesis of all of the stuff I have been involved with all my life,” Hodian said. An Armenian himself, Hodian grew up listening to his father’s Armenian records. He said that he didn’t go out in search of religious texts to inspire his new works; rather, Naghash’s writing was the only thing he found that truly spoke to and inspired him. The poems themselves are themed both around living in exile — as Mkrtich Naghash did — and about doing good. Hodian believes that regardless of if a person is religious or not, the texts share a positive message about doing the right thing, avoiding greed and serving others.
When asked about his composing process, Hodian said, “Writing is a big process of throwing things out; writing is rewriting.” He also emphasized the importance of continued education and shared that he continues to study both music theory and technique, as well as biographies of composers. “I am still a massive student of music,” he said.
Hodian shared one of his favorite quotes, attributed to Stravinsky, with the students: “Bad composers borrow, good composers steal.” He clarified, “What I think Stravinsky is getting at is that bad composers take something and assimilate it at a surface level. When you steal something, it becomes yours and that to me means that you take it in such a way that allows you to do something with it in a much more genuine way.”
When it comes to performing, Hodian takes a similar approach as he does when composing. “When I perform, I always feel like I’m inventing the piece for the first time.” He advised that students “play the piece as if [they’re] improvising, as if [they’re] creating it for the first time.”
After an engaging hour of answering student and faculty questions, Hodian ended with a final piece of advice, “Don’t listen to anybody, including me,” he said. “You have to do what you want to do and a good foundation to do that is by learning everything. Then, don’t use it.”
