Marta Navasardyan was born on June 2, 1918 in Yerevan.
Her parents, noticing the daughter’s bright musical talent, which had been developing since childhood, allowed her to study music. The love for music and art determined Marta Navasardyan’s further choice of profession.
In 1933, she entered the Piano Department of the Yerevan State Conservatory in the class of Professor Anna Mnatsakanyan. The professor had deep professional knowledge and experience in the European piano school; she was one of the best teachers at the conservatory. Mnatsakanyan instilled in her students a delicate musical taste and a love for Armenian music. She showed the features of performing the works by European authors. Marta Navasardyan always remembered her conservatory years in the class of her beloved professor and was grateful for everything.
When Marta was a fourth-year student, she was one of the best students at the conservatory. She participated in the concert dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the composer Nikoghayos Tigranian (Tbilisi, 02.28.1937).
On December 16, 1938, a concert was held in the Armenian Philharmonic Concert Hall (Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall) by some fifth-year pianists of the Yerevan State Conservatory: Anna Ambakumyan, Ophelia Petrosyan, Marta Navasardyan and Asya Sargsyan.
After successfully graduating from the conservatory in 1938, Marta Navasardyan began teaching piano at the Music School after Alexander Spendiaryan, where she worked until 1978. In the same year, she taught the accompanist class and headed the Piano Department (1952-1960). Her open lessons aroused constant interest.
In 1965, Marta Navasardyan was awarded the title of Honored Teacher of Armenia.
In parallel with teaching at the music school, Marta Navasardyan began working as an accompanist at the conservatory (1939), in the class of violinist Karp Dombaev, who had just moved from Moscow. Here she worked for twelve long years. In Karp Dombaev’s class, accompanying at exams, concerts, republican shows, and competitions, she mastered an extensive violin repertoire. During those years, some future famous musicians performed with Marta Navasardyan: Anahit Tsitsikyan, Rafael Mangasaryan, Gevorg Ajemyan, Hakob Vardanyan, Petros Haykazyan, and others.
It is important to remember that “…in the summer of 1948, end-of-year exams at the String Instruments Department revealed a group of gifted students with excellent skills. In this regard, the leadership of the conservatory came up with the idea of holding open class evenings in Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg). On December 19, 1948, an evening of the violin class of Karp Dombaev took place in the Small Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory, and two days later in the same hall, there was an evening of the classes of G. Adamyan (cello), A. Azatyan (viola) and G. Bogdanyan (violin). On December 23 and 24, both evenings were repeated in the Small Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory. On December 26, all participants in the show performed in a special concert at the House of Culture of Soviet Armenia in Moscow.”
Marta Navasardyan and her highly professional performances contributed to the success of young Armenian violinists.
During Marta’s long accompanist and solo performing activity, her concerts were a noticeable phenomenon in the musical life of Yerevan.
In 1954, a creative collaboration between Marta Navasardyan and violinist Hrachya Abajyan, who graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory, began. The collaboration lasted about ten years.
Lovers of Armenian music remember Marta Navasardyan’s solo concert on June 25, 1955, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Komitas’s death, which took place in the hall of the Armenian House of Artists (ADRI).
In 1950, Marta Navasardyan was offered to teach an accompanist training class at the conservatory, first at the Chamber Ensemble Department, and from 1970 — at the Accompanist Training Department, where she worked until 1978. In the first years of work at the department, Marta Navasardyan taught instrumental accompaniment (vocal accompaniment was taught by the founder and first head of the department, Yelena (Heghine) Ter-Ghevondyan). Probably, such separation of instrumental and vocal parts had some reasons then. Ter-Ghevondyan accompanied mainly singers, and Navasardyan accompanied only violinists.
From the late 40s to the early 50s, the subject “accompanist training” entered into the register of state exams.
Over the years of teaching, Associate Professor Marta Navasardyan trained several generations of professional accompanists: Alda Zakaryan, Margarita Melik-Stepanyan, Irina Kostanyan, and many others.
Marta Navasardyan was a deputy of the Myasnikyan District Council (1973-1975).
She was awarded two medals and a Certificate of Honor from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR.