Her own longing for God began when this graduate from Berklee College of Music in Boston was on her way to a career in pop music. The pressures that came with her college experience began to take their toll, and Jamgochian started to lose hope. 

“It was a variety of things--school, life, my boyfriend leaving for a while, all kinds of things going on,” she says. “I just began to lose some of my joy and my upbeat personality. Eventually, I felt totally desperate.” 

A new friend she met on campus began to talk to her about God, and as their friendship grew, she introduced Jamgochian to Christ.

“When I started to read the Bible closely, that’s when I realized that I could really come to know Jesus personally,” Jamgochian says. “It was a new way of thinking for me, and it became a time of real healing in my life. I think I had lost hope in a lot of areas, but when I became a Christian, things began to click and they made more sense. My whole world turned around completely.” 

After graduation, Jamgochian took an internship at The City Church in Seattle—thinking God was calling her to set aside a year to grow as a Christian there. But one year turned into seven. 

She led worship for the church youth group and saw attendance for the Wednesday night youth events grow from 50 kids to nearly 1,000. Through her involvement in outreach and missions programs she led worship at annual conferences for thousands of youth.

While she honed her skills as a worship leader, doors also opened for her to find a musical home at Centricity Records, where she is the label’s flagship artist. Reason to Live is her national recording debut. 

She says of the CD’s title song: “This reminded me of some of those Berklee days when I was really looking for hope. The nature of this song comes from the Psalms, especially Psalms 139, which says, ‘If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I reside in the depths of the sea, you are there.’ It talks about how God is always there through everything, and he gives us a reason to live. It’s a call to live to worship Him in every area of our lives.” 

Another highlight is “Hear My Worship,” which Jamgochian describes as “probably the hardest song for me to write.” 

“But it’s probably my favorite,” she adds. “It’s about wanting to come to God and worship honestly, showing him our true intentions and being completely transparent before him. It’s a cry to God--that beyond my bended knees, beyond my lifted hands, beyond the words I sing, God would hear my worship. In my life, my heart and in everything I do, the cry of my heart is that He would hear worship in me.”

Jamgochian offers us her heart with this release, encouraging listeners to see worship as a lifestyle that doesn’t end when the music stops. Be prepared, though—her CD beckons you into the presence of God, where only the surrendered can enter.