When Mary Baghdasaryan from Alaverdi first arrived at the COAF SMART Center in Lori, she was amazed by the size of the hub— her music school’s stage was the only thing that compared to the scale of its amphitheater.

Elen Kharatyan from the village of Dsegh in Lori first stepped into the SMART Center at just eight years old—and she hasn’t been away for long since. She says every program at SMART has something special to offer, but the ones closest to her heart are Dance, Drawing, and Russian. Right now, she’s especially excited about joining the AgriTech program.

Once the bassist of Vanadzor’s beloved band Clocker, and later a trombone player during his army service, Sevada Hovhannisyan now brings his musical journey full circle as the Sound Design instructor at the COAF SMART Center in Lori.

Narek’s older brother may have joined SMART first, but it didn’t take long for the roles to reverse. Soon, everyone was calling his older brother “Narek’s brother, Manvel.”