About Us

Gusan, a Project with Multiple Objectives

Gusan is a project founded in 2025, dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and transmission of knowledge related to traditional Armenian musical instruments.

Aware of the richness of Armenian musical heritage, Gusan aims to make it accessible to as many people as possible through various means including the creation of written and audiovisual documentation, the availability of a curated selection of instruments for sale, and more broadly, the active promotion of these arts using modern tools.

For generations, Armenian musicians, bards, ashughs, poets, and intellectuals have held deep respect for Armenian musical art—its craftsmen, its performers, and its scholars. Yet today, these cultural symbols are often being neglected in favor of more standardized artistic trends, promoted in the name of openness to the world but at the risk of erasing cultural distinctiveness.

In contrast to this global homogenization, Gusan defends a vision rooted in authenticity and cultural uniqueness. The project advocates for the appreciation of local arts, seeing their dilution in a globalized artistic landscape as a significant threat to cultural diversity.

Our Work 

Preserving and Documenting

At the heart of Gusan lies a fundamental mission: to collect, structure, and preserve the knowledge related to traditional Armenian instruments. This includes safeguarding the techniques of craftsmanship, organological specificities, and performance contexts, as well as documenting their history, evolution, symbolism, and role in contemporary Armenian culture.

Documentation is the foundation of any preservation effort. By archiving knowledge that is often transmitted orally or scattered across inaccessible sources, Gusan secures and transmits an intangible heritage at risk of disappearing. Each fact sheet, each video, and each interview with a craftsman or musician contributes to a living and evolving knowledge base.

This documentary approach serves as the starting point for broader promotional efforts. To make these instruments known to the public, to musicians worldwide, to researchers, and to younger generations, we must first understand their essence. By highlighting their origins, complexity, variations, and diversity, Gusan seeks to spark curiosity, foster respect, and encourage learning.

To preserve is already to promote. By safeguarding this knowledge, Gusan creates the conditions necessary for a cultural revival. Whether through educational content, exhibitions, publications, or training programs, everything begins with rigorous, accessible, and thoughtful documentation.

Supporting Local Craftsmen and Luthiers

Gusan places Armenian craftsmen and luthiers at the core of its mission. For centuries, these masters of wood and sound have shaped the iconic instruments of Armenian culture such as the duduk, kamancha, tar, and oud. Following the 1915 genocide, many were forced into exile. In Greece, Lebanon, the United States, and across the diaspora, they preserved their craft under often difficult conditions, continuing the art of their ancestors despite their displacement.

Today, however, traditional Armenian craftsmanship outside Armenia is gradually fading. This is understandable. Sustaining a demanding artisanal tradition is difficult without a supportive cultural ecosystem, access to local materials, and new apprentices to carry on the work. Family-run diaspora workshops are closing one after another due to a lack of transmission or viable prospects.

That is why Gusan affirms that the artisans of tomorrow must emerge from within Armenia, where cultural roots, ancestral knowledge, local materials, and musical traditions converge. Armenia must once again become a vibrant center for the training, production, and global reach of traditional instruments. Not in opposition to the diaspora, but as a natural continuation of Armenian history.

We are committed to supporting the artisans working in Armenia today by providing technical support, modernizing workshops, developing commercial opportunities, and increasing their international visibility. By restoring the prestige of these professions, Gusan helps foster a new generation of artisans who are capable of upholding excellence while meeting contemporary demands without compromising authenticity.

The artisan is not merely a producer of objects. They are the essential link between memory and future, between material and sound, between culture and craft. It is through them that Armenian music continues to live, to evolve, and to be passed on.

Promoting and Showcasing through Modern Means

In a world where attention is captured in seconds and traditions risk being forgotten, Gusan’s mission is also to bring Armenian instruments into the present. We use contemporary communication tools to give these instruments the visibility they deserve.

We believe that cultural transmission today requires an active, high-quality presence in digital spaces. Through professional-quality videos, educational content, musical demonstrations, and interviews with musicians and artisans, Gusan brings these instruments to life and makes them accessible to all.

Our presence on social media serves to inform, document, and inspire while also reaching younger generations who may feel disconnected from these traditions. By adapting formats, aesthetics, and narratives to these new audiences, we help spark renewed curiosity and even pride for Armenian musical arts.

To promote does not mean to freeze the past in a museum. It means creating dialogue between past and present, building bridges between heritage and innovation. By combining in-depth content with modern outreach strategies, Gusan aims to bring the duduk, kamancha, tar, and blul back to the center of the global cultural stage.

Our ambition is clear. These instruments should not only be known by specialists or enthusiasts. They should be recognized, shared, played, and admired. Their voices must continue to resonate in today's world and for generations to come.

Supporting and Celebrating Musicians

Gusan’s focus is not limited to instruments. It also honors those who bring them to life. From historic figures to contemporary performers, the project is committed to highlighting the work and journeys of the musicians who have carried Armenian music into homes, onto stages, and across the diaspora.

We aim to showcase their artistry, their stories, and their contributions. We pay tribute both to historic icons and to emerging talents who reinterpret and extend the musical tradition. Too often overlooked, these artists are the custodians of memory, the bridges of transmission, and the engines of innovation.

Through artist profiles, videos, interviews, recordings, and opportunities for collaboration and exposure, Gusan offers Armenian musicians—both established and up-and-coming—a platform for recognition and visibility.

This support also involves documenting their work, promoting their projects, and opening access to broader audiences beyond borders and specialist circles. Keeping Armenian music alive also means supporting those who embody it with talent and passion, day after day.

The Gusan Team

The Gusan project was founded by Solag Koroghlian, a musician and passionate advocate for Armenian culture, history, and music. After launching La Maison du Duduk in France in 2023, a project dedicated to promoting the duduk, he relocated to Armenia to give this commitment broader scope.

Gusan is the natural evolution of that journey, with a broader mission to document, preserve, and celebrate all traditional Armenian instruments and the craftsmanship surrounding them.

This ambitious project is driven by a small team managing communication, website operations, and content development, with the support of collaborators and partners.

But the soul of the project lies in its collective dimension. For the first time, Armenian luthiers and artisans from diverse backgrounds have united around a shared cause. They are committed to the promotion of Armenian instruments with respect for authenticity and traditional knowledge. All of them take pride in being represented by Gusan and, in that sense, they are a full part of the team.

Gusan is more than just a platform. It is a community, a commitment, and a shared movement to ensure that Armenian musical art continues to live, to be passed on, and to inspire the world.