Isabel Bayrakdarian

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, most recently endearing herself to London’s audiences in her Royal Opera House debut as Susanna in Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro. The young Armenian-Canadian is admired as much for her stunning stage presence as for her exceptional musicality, and has followed a career path completely her own. Her most famous roles are in Mozart operas, which she has sung continuously during the composer’s 250th birthday year: Susanna, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Pamina in The Magic Flute have been her calling cards, along with Marzelline in Fidelio, Adina in L'elisir d'amore and Rosina in The Barber of Seville. But these are only a few of the roles in her rocketing career. Ms. Bayrakdarian sang Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo to signature success at Lyric Opera of Chicago – and Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Romilda (Xerxes), and Emilia (Flavio) demonstrate her tremendous skills as a Handelian.
Miss Bayrakdarian has been applauded for opera performances in Chicago, Dresden, London, Milan, New York, Paris, Salzburg, San Francisco and Toronto, and is renowned as well for her work in remoter operas of the repertory, such as Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini and Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge, in which she made her Metropolitan Opera debut.
Highlights of Miss Bayrakdarian’s 2006-07 Metropolitan Opera season include appearances in Julie Taymour’s sensational production of Mozart’s Zauberflöte, as Pamina – in both the full-length original German and in the 90-minute English language version the Met is staging for the first time this season. Last season’s Met opening night audiences enjoyed her engaging performance as Susanna to Bryn Terfel's Figaro in Act I of Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro. Last season she also sang Zerlina at the Salzburg Festival’s celebration of Mozart’s birthday, and in Le Nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden and the Houston Grand Opera. This season, Miss Bayrakdarian will also return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for her role debut as Blanche in Robert Carsen’s production of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, where she triumphed in last season’s new production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
Her orchestral appearances last season included debuts with the Chicago and Montreal Symphonies – both in the Mahler Fourth Symphony – with conductors David Zinman and James Conlon respectively.
Miss Bayrakdarian, often partnered by her husband, Serouj Kradjian, has also triumphed in recital in New York’s Carnegie Hall, in Atlanta, Berkeley, Boston, Edmonton, Ottawa, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver and elsewhere. This season they tour Canada together, and perform at New York’s newest recital space – the Gilder Lehrman hall in the Morgan Library – and in Palm Beach, Toronto, Savannah, and Tokyo. Continuing her passion for a wide ranging repertoire, Miss Bayrakdarian will present her first evening of Tangos in a concert at Toronto’s new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, and will participate in the world premiere performances of Jake Heggie and Gene Sheer’s one-act opera To Hell and Back. She will co-star in To Hell and Back with the Broadway star Patti LuPone accompanied by San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, under its music director Nicholas McGegan.
Concertizing with orchestras in San Francisco, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and at home in Canada with the Toronto and Montreal Symphonies, Tafelmusik, Les Violons du Roy, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and other major Canadian performing organizations, Miss Bayrakdarian has performed with numerous groups in Europe as well.
Isabel Bayrakdarian sings on the Grammy® Award-winning soundtrack of the blockbuster film The Lord of The Rings:The Two Towers, as well as in the multiple award-winning Canadian film Ararat. Ms. Bayrakdarian’s widely-praised recording of songs by singer/composer Pauline Viardot-Garcia, brought her a third Juno award for “Best Classical Album”, Canada’s highest recording prize. Azulão is a disc of songs by Spanish composers, and on Cleopatra she portrays the Egyptian queen in arias from several Baroque operas. Her first solo CD, Joyous Light, presents Armenian sacred music. After hearing one of her recordings, composer Howard Shore invited her to sing on his soundtrack for the Lord of the Rings film mentioned above. She has also recorded Mahler’s Second Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.
Isabel Bayrakdarian has received many grants and other awards in addition to the first prize in the Operalia: three Juno awards, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, the 2005 Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Leonie Rysanek Award from the George London Foundation, and a Metropolitan Opera National Council Award in 1997.
Born in Lebanon of proud Armenian heritage, and a loyal citizen of Canada, Miss 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 is the subject of a CBC-TV film entitled A Long Journey Home that documents her first trip to Armenia, where – on another trip – she recently recorded a disc of songs by Armenia’s national composer, Gomidas Vartabed (1869-1935) with her husband and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. She holds an honors degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto.


from www.bayrakdarian.com