The Shoghaken Folk Ensemble (Armenian: «Շողակն» ժողովրդական համույթ) is an Armenian musical group that performs and records Armenian folk and ashugh (troubadour) music. The ensemble was founded in 1991[1] in Yerevan. It has since performed in various countries, including France (including a 2006 performance at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris), Germany, Estonia, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. In the US, they performed at an eighteen-concert 2004 tour and at the 2002 Folklife Festival as part of the Silk Road project organized by Yo-Yo Ma. The ensemble was also featured on the soundtrack to the Atom Egoyan film Ararat. In 2008, Shoghaken gave concerts during their second major tour of the US and Canada; the tour coincided with the release of the ensemble's latest CD, Shoghaken Ensemble: Music From Armenia.
Among its founding members are sibling singers Hasmik Harutyunyan and Aleksan Harutyunyan, and duduk player Gevorg Dabaghyan.[2] Its members play a variety of traditional Armenian instruments, including but not limited to the duduk, the pku, the zurna, the dhol, the kanon, the kamancha, and the shvi.[3]