About this user
"A soprano voice that combines lyricism with remarkable dramatic instincts" ─ Time
Isabel Bayrakdarian burst onto the international opera scene after winning first prize in the 2000 Operalia competition founded by Plácido Domingo. Since then she has performed in many of the world's major opera houses and concert halls. She is admired as much for her stunning stage presence as for her exceptional musicality, and she has followed a career path completely her own.
In the 2010-2011 season Ms. Bayrakdarian makes her Tanglewood debut in Poulenc's Gloria with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman and sings selections of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Aspen Music Festival with Marin Alsop. She returns to the Canadian Opera Company as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and will reprise her interpretation of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen for her debut with the New York Phiharmonic under the direction of its music director Alan Gilbert. Important concert appearances include Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Peter Oundjian, an arias program with the Seattle Symphony and Nicholas McGegan, Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and John Axelrod, and the premiere of a new work by Serouj Kradian with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Anne Manson. She also appears in recital with her husband, pianist Serouj Kradjian, at London's Wigmore Hall and Ars Nova in Ottawa, Ontario.
Ms. Bayrakdarian sings on the Grammy® award-winning soundtrack of the blockbuster film The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers. She has been honored with four Juno awards, Canada's highest recording prize, most recently for her CD Mozart arie & duetti with fellow Canadians Russell Braun and Michael Schade. She is the subject of a CBC-TV film entitled A Long Journey Home that documents her first trip to Armenia. She recently recorded a disc of songs by Armenia's national composer, Gomidas Vartabed with Serouj Kradjian and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra which is available on the Nonesuch label and was a 2009 Grammy® nominee.
Born in Lebanon of proud Armenian heritage and now a citizen of Canada, Ms. Bayrakdarian moved with her family to Toronto as a teenager. Her earliest singing experience was at church, which remains -- along with her family -- the central focus of her life. She holds an honors degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto.
Official Facebook Fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/IsabelBayrakdarian
Country
Canada
