Aug 1–2, Yerevan
Armenia
Festival '26
Notations
Notations is an annual interdisciplinary festival shaped by a two-week laboratory. Artists from around the world collaborate across sound, media and performance, then present two days of concerts, installations, talks, workshops and lectures, alongside headliners.
The State Philharmonia of Armenia
The State Philharmonia of Armenia has been established in 1930. Throughout its activity, Philharmonia has played a significant role in preserving and developing Armenian musical culture. International educational and cognitive projects, concerts, festivals, competitions, master classes, presentations are organised by the institution. Philharmonia is also engaged in the production of scientific-cognitive films and publishing. The mission of Philharmonia is to contribute to the development of the country's cultural sector by presenting the best works of Armenian and world art.
babajanyanhall.org/en/
The State Philharmonia of Armenia has been established in 1930. Throughout its activity, Philharmonia has played a significant role in preserving and developing Armenian musical culture. International educational and cognitive projects, concerts, festivals, competitions, master classes, presentations are organised by the institution. Philharmonia is also engaged in the production of scientific-cognitive films and publishing. The mission of Philharmonia is to contribute to the development of the country's cultural sector by presenting the best works of Armenian and world art.
babajanyanhall.org/en/
The National Gallery of Armenia is one of the major museums in Armenia and the largest in the world with its Armenian fine arts collection. The Gallery was established in 1921 The collection includes more than 42.000 exhibits of Armenian and world fine arts and decorative-applied art.
www.gallery.am/en
www.gallery.am/en
Yerevan State Conservatory (YSC) after Komitas was founded in 1921 as a music studio and re-founded two years later as a higher musical education institution.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Armenian professional performing culture was shaped. It was represented by the graduates of Russian and European conservatories. Violinist Hovhanness Nalbandyan, (St. Petersburg Conservatory and Berlin Musikhochschule), singer M.Akimova (Leipzig Conservatory), musicologist M.Aghayan (St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories), singer A.Shahmuradyan (Conservatoire de Paris) etc.
The founder and first rector of conservatory was famous Armenian composer and widely educated musician and public figure Romanos Melikyan (Saints-Petersburg Conservatory graduate)
conservatory.am
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Armenian professional performing culture was shaped. It was represented by the graduates of Russian and European conservatories. Violinist Hovhanness Nalbandyan, (St. Petersburg Conservatory and Berlin Musikhochschule), singer M.Akimova (Leipzig Conservatory), musicologist M.Aghayan (St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories), singer A.Shahmuradyan (Conservatoire de Paris) etc.
The founder and first rector of conservatory was famous Armenian composer and widely educated musician and public figure Romanos Melikyan (Saints-Petersburg Conservatory graduate)
conservatory.am
Green Rock Foundation is the corporate social responsibility branch of Green Rock, working in community development, culture, ecology, and education in Armenia. Its projects include the Apicius International Hospitality School, the award-winning Meet Dilijan initiative, the Tourism Regional Forum, and the renovation of a local sport school.
green-rock-foundation.am
green-rock-foundation.am
Green Rock is a development company in Armenia focused on largescale projects that transform cities, infrastructure, and local economies. The company operates across three directions - Development, Operations, and Investments - with its flagship project centered in the town of Dilijan, including a multifunctional complex with a hotel, cultural venues, and public spaces.
greenrock.am
greenrock.am
Hayfilm Cluster is a multidisciplinary creative hub in Yerevan, Armenia, set in a former Armenian film factory on Ashtarak Highway. With a capacity of around 1,500, it operates as a club, cinema, and event space, best known as one of Armenia's leading venues for electronic music and rave culture.
hayfilm
hayfilm
Esthetic Joy Embassy
Esthetic Joy Embassy
program
Arman Peshtmaljyan [AM] / Shahen Khandkaryan (Shhau) [AM] / Tigran Suchyan [AM] / Mesrop Sarkisyan [US/AM] / Zhanna Davtyan [AM] / Ben Wheeler [US/GE] / Aram Hovhannisyan [AM] / Sergey Umroyan [AM] / Dima Ustinov [RU/DE] / Kai Khachatryan [AM] / Venera Kazarova [DE] / Nadya Xyxu [RU] / Misak Samokatian [AM] / Gevorg Grigoryan (di.i) [AM] / Artem Semenov [AM] / Evgeniy Sharakshane [AM] / Andronik Khachiian [AM/MX] / Tanya Chizhikova [RU/DE] / Jeanne Kormina [RU/AM] / Arthur Atayan [AM] / Andriesh Gandrabur [AM] / Daria Sadovnikova [RU] / Karina Malik [RU/PK] / Aleksei Leontev [RU/FR] / Yurii Avdeev [RU]/ & more
days
2
artists
111
venues
3
| The State Philharmonia |
| National Gallery of Armenia |
| Hayfilm |
| National Gallery of Armenia |
| Hayfilm |
Coverage
Hyper Culture Collective
Yerevan is not the city you think it is — if you think of it at all. Armenia's creative industries are booming, nearly doubling in value over the last decade. Independent platforms, cross-disciplinary communities, a vibrant art scene: all of it taking shape in real time, in a city most international audiences haven't caught up with yet.
read
Yerevan is not the city you think it is — if you think of it at all. Armenia's creative industries are booming, nearly doubling in value over the last decade. Independent platforms, cross-disciplinary communities, a vibrant art scene: all of it taking shape in real time, in a city most international audiences haven't caught up with yet.
read
Culturalee
Notations Lab & Festival 2026 Brings 65 International Artists to Yerevan, Armenia, for an Interdisciplinary Celebration of Contemporary Art
read
Notations Lab & Festival 2026 Brings 65 International Artists to Yerevan, Armenia, for an Interdisciplinary Celebration of Contemporary Art
read
Colossal
"hosq is an international cultural hub in Armenia. Notations is a laboratory and festival for artists working across sound, music, media, installation, performance, and research. This year’s theme is “rituals.” An 11-day research and production period culminates with installation for the festival."
read
"hosq is an international cultural hub in Armenia. Notations is a laboratory and festival for artists working across sound, music, media, installation, performance, and research. This year’s theme is “rituals.” An 11-day research and production period culminates with installation for the festival."
read
The 2026 edition centres on ritual as a method to connect — through repetition, presence and shared action. It asks how cultural memory, personal experience and collective imagination can open new forms of relation.
2-day ticket + swag pack
֏27000
Supporter
1-day ticket
Next wave — ֏6000
֏4000
Night
2-day ticket
Next wave — ֏3000
֏2000
Day
2-day ticket
Next wave — ֏7000
֏5000
Full Pass
Early Bird — 100
1st Wave — 300
2nd Wave — 1000
1st Wave — 300
2nd Wave — 1000
At the door:
Full Pass (2 days) — ֏14000 (€23)
Day Program (2 days) — ֏5000 (€12)
Night Program (1 day) — ֏11000 (€24)
Full Pass (2 days) — ֏14000 (€23)
Day Program (2 days) — ֏5000 (€12)
Night Program (1 day) — ֏11000 (€24)
Curators
Arman Peshtmaljyan
Award-winning Armenian composer, pianist, arranger, songwriter, and producer working across jazz, folk, fusion, and contemporary music production
Shahen Khandkaryan | Shhau
Electronic music producer, composer, and educator. His practice combines club culture, sound design, and Armenian musical identity
Nadya Xyxu
Media artist working with generative visuals, experimental sound, AR, and audio-reactive environments
Kai Khachatryan
Experimental musician and sound artist working with spatial sound, immersive listening, and multichannel sonic environments
Venera Kazarova
Contemporary artist and designer working between wearable art, costume, and performative visual practices
Dima Ustinov
Composer, electronic musician, and multidisciplinary artist working with improvisation, performance, and experimental sound environments
Misak Samokatian
Artist and art director working across audiovisual, kinetic, light, and interactive installations, focusing on immersive media environments
Andronik Khachiian
Artist and curator working with inter-species collaboration, participatory art and performance; art director & curator of educational programs at hosq
Gevorg Grigoryan | dob_
Multimedia artist and founder of Di-Studio, specializing in projection mapping, interactive visuals, and real-time audiovisual systems
Aram Hovhannisyan
Composer, flutist, educator, and Vice-Rector at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. His chamber works have been performed in Europe and North America
Sergey Umroyan
Composer, producer, and sound artist; co-founder of Ensemble Assonance, Armenian National Music, and Amara Publishing
Tigran Suchyan
Trumpeter, composer, and jazz musician; director with the Artsakh State Jazz Orchestra and Dialog Music Project
Mesrop Sarkisyan
Mesrop is a versatile pianist, producer, and educator with 25 years of experience across classical, jazz, and electronic music
Zhanna Davtyan
A vocalist and musicologist based in Yerevan, her work moves between Armenian folk music, jazz, and contemporary performance.
Ben Wheeler
Ethnomusicologist, composer, and researcher focused on Caucasus musical traditions and their contemporary reinterpretation
Tanya Chizhikova
Tanya is a choreographer and dance artist whose work explores the boundaries of choreography through dance, performance, and interdisciplinary art
Projects
Curated by Arman Peshtmaljyan and Shahen Khandkaryan (Shhau), the program showcases artists working across music, sound, technology, and performance, highlighting new approaches to listening, composition, and collective creation.
Curated by Kai Khachatryan, the project brings together immersive audio experiences, spatial sound works, and experimental installations that expand the possibilities of listening.
Curated by Misak Samokatian and Nadya Xyxu, the project presents multimedia installations, audiovisual performances, and spatial interventions that transform the festival into a site of experimentation, interaction, and discovery.
Curated by Gevorg Grigoryan, the project brings together artists working with moving image, film, animation, archives, and audiovisual storytelling, presenting new visual works and experiments throughout the festival.
Curated by Tanya Chizhikova (DE), Somatic Practices brings body-based research into the laboratory and festival through contemporary dance, performance, embodied practices, philosophy, and movement. Approaching the body not as an object, but as a condition of existence, the project explores repetition, routine, everyday actions, and attention as practices of resilience — asking how movement and time lived together can create solidarity, preserve memory, and help us witness the present before it becomes the past.
Venera Kazarova
Inviting designers, costume artists, textile artists, wearable art practitioners, jewelry designers, performance designers, stylists, craft-based artists, and interdisciplinary makers exploring the body as an artistic medium.
Inviting designers, costume artists, textile artists, wearable art practitioners, jewelry designers, performance designers, stylists, craft-based artists, and interdisciplinary makers exploring the body as an artistic medium.
Aram Hovhannisyan
Sergey Umroyan
Inviting classical musicians, composers, conductors, instrumentalists, electro-acoustic composers, experimental performers, contemporary music practitioners, and artists exploring intersections between acoustic instruments and electronics to explore the idea of rituals through classical instruments and other forms of expression that we will discover along the way.
Sergey Umroyan
Inviting classical musicians, composers, conductors, instrumentalists, electro-acoustic composers, experimental performers, contemporary music practitioners, and artists exploring intersections between acoustic instruments and electronics to explore the idea of rituals through classical instruments and other forms of expression that we will discover along the way.
Tigran Suchyan
Mesrop Sarkisyan
Inviting jazz musicians, improvisers, composers, instrumentalists, electronic performers, live-looping artists, and practitioners working between improvisation, groove, sound experimentation, and electronic music to explore the idea of rituals through jazz language and other forms of expression that we will discover along the way.
Mesrop Sarkisyan
Inviting jazz musicians, improvisers, composers, instrumentalists, electronic performers, live-looping artists, and practitioners working between improvisation, groove, sound experimentation, and electronic music to explore the idea of rituals through jazz language and other forms of expression that we will discover along the way.
Hayk Karoyi
Ben Wheeler
Inviting traditional musicians, folk singers, ethnomusicologists, sound artists, producers, instrumentalists, experimental composers, and artists interested in transforming traditional music practices through contemporary technologies and electronic approaches to explore the idea of rituals through traditional instruments and other forms of expression that we will discover along the way.
Ben Wheeler
Inviting traditional musicians, folk singers, ethnomusicologists, sound artists, producers, instrumentalists, experimental composers, and artists interested in transforming traditional music practices through contemporary technologies and electronic approaches to explore the idea of rituals through traditional instruments and other forms of expression that we will discover along the way.
Jeanne Kormina (YCIE)
Sergei Shtyrkov (YCIE)
Inviting researchers, scientists, theorists, anthropologists, philosophers, technologists, cultural researchers, writers, archivists, and interdisciplinary practitioners interested in the intersection of art, science, technology, society, and experimental research practices.
Sergei Shtyrkov (YCIE)
Inviting researchers, scientists, theorists, anthropologists, philosophers, technologists, cultural researchers, writers, archivists, and interdisciplinary practitioners interested in the intersection of art, science, technology, society, and experimental research practices.
Dima Ustinov
Andriesh Gandrabur
Reverse Tower is a ritual in which human signals become light and sound, creating an experience of cosmic perspective and temporarily dissolving the borders between people.
Inviting artists, researchers, technologists and engineers.
Reverse Tower is a ritual in which human signals become light and sound, creating an experience of cosmic perspective and temporarily dissolving the borders between people.
Inviting artists, researchers, technologists and engineers.
Andronik Khachiian
Rituals of Matter. During the concerts, microscopic rituals of matter become live visuals: dissolving crystals, spreading pigments, microorganisms, liquids, and organic particles are captured in real time and transformed through Resolume into a reactive visual environment that evolves together with the music.
Rituals of Matter. During the concerts, microscopic rituals of matter become live visuals: dissolving crystals, spreading pigments, microorganisms, liquids, and organic particles are captured in real time and transformed through Resolume into a reactive visual environment that evolves together with the music.
The documentary film Notations #2 will capture the inner life of the laboratory, following its production process from the initial creative sparks to the final showcase. Instead of a traditional format, the narrative places a sharp focus on the unique personal stories of the participants, crew, and curators.
Notations
previous year
previous year
visitors
1000+
days
2
projects
37
artists
70
The first festival presented two days of new interdisciplinary work drawn from Avet Terterian’s Symphony No. 3. Several projects have since continued through releases, tours and new presentations.
Partners
The State Philharmonia of Armenia
2-day ticket + swag pack
֏27000
Supporter
1-day ticket
Next wave — ֏6000
֏4000
Night
2-day ticket
Next wave — ֏3000
֏2000
Day
2-day ticket
Next wave — ֏7000
֏5000
Full Pass
Early Bird — 0/100
1st Wave — 0/300
2nd Wave — 0/1000
1st Wave — 0/300
2nd Wave — 0/1000
At the door:
Full Pass (2 days) — ֏14000 (€23)
Day Program (2 days) — ֏5000 (€12)
Night Program (1 day) — ֏11000 (€24)
Full Pass (2 days) — ֏14000 (€23)
Day Program (2 days) — ֏5000 (€12)
Night Program (1 day) — ֏11000 (€24)
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