Ara Carapetyan

One evening during choir practice, Ara accidentally lost control of his baton. It flew across the choir room and laughter exploded from us all. The next week I presented him with a retractable reel badge holder to clip to his baton - his joyous reaction gave us another round of hearty laughter. We all loved him so, and it showed in our singing.

A wonderful musician and a treasured friend. I sang under Ara at First Presbyterian in Houston in the 80s & 90s and stayed in touch in the years since. I learned more about music from Ara than any other director I ever worked with and shared many pleasant conversations with him over the years. I will always be forever thankful to have known him. Mike Gabel

So many fond memories of Ara at First Presbyterian Church Houston and with Houston Masterworks Chorus. He enjoyed life and music making. The world is a better place because of his contributions.

Ara conducted the Peachtree Presbyterian choir of which I was a member for a couple of years and I loved his booming laugh and his wonderful ability to single out an errant note. He was a treasure.

I took the in-law and stepparent road to know Ara. I knew the first time I met him that he was extra-special. And that feeling just grew over the years. Beautifully-written obituary to celebrate the life of one of the finest people I´ve had the privilege to know. To be with him was to feel the Holy Presence to whom he dedicated his gifts and energy.

When I met Ara, I had come to UPC to tune the piano. He was quite adamant that he wanted Walter and me to join the Chancel Choir! We both learned so much from him about good choral singing, and that doesn´t even touch what he taught Erica, my daughter. She sings in top-notch choirs to this day, thanks in large part to his tutelage. I will be grateful to him for that to my dying day. He was serious as could be about music, but he was also serious about joy, one of his favorite words! I´ll...

I will always remember Ara in front of the new choir, Sanctuary Singers, who were panicking about learning musics on Sunday morning before the early service, looking up to Heaven and saying, "trust me". And it worked. Helped me when changing careers in my fifties to discern where I should go.