Hagopian was born in Fowler, California to Armenian parents. He has been a musician since childhood, learning to play the violin and clarinet at nine years old. He started playing the oud at age of 11. At first he was self-taught, and then by invitation he studied Eastern music theory and oud under the Armenian kanun player Kanuni Garbis Bakirgian. Hagopian also took lessons by correspondence from legendary blind Armenian oudist Udi Hrant Kenkulian of Istanbul, who in 1969 gave him the title of "Udi", being one of the few to receive this title.
Career
Hagopian was a founding member of the Kef Time Band, which was formed in 1963 and gained fame in the next few decades. According to the liner notes of the 1968 LP Kef Time Las Vegas, the Kef Time Band was formed originally as the band for a Las Vegas show called the Cleopatra Revue, which ran at the Flamingo Hotel from 1963-1968. During this time the leader of the Cleopatra Revue band, Armenian-American dumbeg player Buddy Sarkissian, met Hagopian and immediately hired him after hearing him play the oud and sing. This was the beginning of the Kef Time Band's career; they would go on to become the most famous band playing the "kef" style of dance music popular among the Armenian-American community. Hagopian has performed throughout the United States and taught a master class at the Manhattan School of Music, as well as teaching as artist-in-residence at California State University. For over 30 years, Hagopian has played annually at "Kef Time" events at dance gatherings in Cape Cod, Hartford, and Detroit. He is a recipient of a 1989 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. His son is the violinist Harold Hagopian, also a music producer who runs the independent traditional musiclabel Traditional Crossroads.
Discography
Albums
LP
Karoon Hayastan, Varoujan Assadourian with Richard Hagopian and His Orchestra
An Evening at the Seventh Veil, Richard Hagopian and His Orchestra
Kef Time Las Vegas
Kef Time Fresno
Kef Time Detroit
Kef Time Hartford
CD
In the Kef Time series CD reissues a few of the track listings have been rearranged, while certain songs were either placed on different albums or left out altogether.
