omidas, the Armenian composer and ethnomusicologist, was born Soghomon Soghomonian in 1869 in Kuthaia, Ottoman Turkey. Orphaned at an early age, he was sent in 1881 to Etchmiadzin , the spiritual center of the Armenian Apostolic Church, to study at the Gevorkian Seminary where he mastered the art of Armenian liturgical singing and conducted research on Armenian folk and sacred music. At the conclusion of his religious education in 1895, he was ordained Vartapet (celibate priest) and adopted the name of Komidas, in memory of the noted 7th century Armenian hymn writer. Between 1893-1896 he founded and tutored the seminary choir and published a volume of Armenian folk songs. In 1896, he traveled to Berlin where, on the advice of Joseph Joachim, he enrolled in the private conservatory of Richard Schmidt and studied aesthetics at the Friedhelm Wilhelm University. He was one of the first musicologists to join the International Musical Society which was founded in 1899 in Berlin. 

Komidas returned to Etchmiadzin in 1899 and spent eleven years in field work throughout the Ottoman empire, collecting and transcribing Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish dance tunes and folk songs and investigating the Armenian khaz (neumatic) notation system. During this period he lectured extensively on Armenian music in Europe, wrote about the subject in local and international journals and conducted choirs which he founded in European and Middle Eastern cities. 

Komidas' work brought him into conflict with the church hierarchy which considered his activities too wordly. In 1910, he moved from Etchmiadzin to Constantinople, one of the largest centers of Armenian cultural life. For the next five years, he dedicated his energies and knowledge to the training and conducting of the 300-mwmber Gusan Armenian mixed choir in Constantinople. He also performed as a solist, and between 1912-1913 he recorded a series of 78rpm phonograph records in Paris. 

The 1915-1917 Ottoman genocide of the Armenians was the beginning of Komidas' tragic period which was marked by psychic trauma and artistic loss. In April 1915, with other Armenian intellectuals and artists, Komidas was arrested and deported to the interior of the Empire. While Komidas was spared the fate of his friends who were murdered, upon his return to Constantinople he found his life's work - manuscripts, research findings on the khaz notation system and his library - in total disarray. A full accounting of his manuscripts, including his research notes and preliminary findings an the khaz system has so far eluded scholars. 
 

After 1919 Komidas produced no music. He died in Paris in 1935. His remains were taken to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, the following year.

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