Isabel Bayrakdarian: www.bayrakdarian.com/
Global Trades: www.globaltrades.ca/music.html
Performed by Isabel Beyrakdarian and the Yerevan Chamber Choir in 2004, from "A LONG JOURNEY HOME", a documentary film, produced by Stormy Night Productions, follows Isabel Bayrakdarian on an emotional pilgrimage and her first visit to her spiritual homeland. With the participation of pianist Serouj Kradjian, Komitas String Quartet, and Yerevan Chamber Choir among others, she performs selections from the sacred and secular music of Armenia in churches and ruins that are the most ancient in the world. Viewers are given the opportunity to visit a part of the world whose mystical landscape provides a haunting backdrop for the music.
More information:
www.bayrakdarian.com
www.komitas.am/eng/index_eng.php
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Isabel Bayrakdarian (official bio)
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 unique career path completely her own.
In the 2008-2009 season Ms. Bayrakdarian tours with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra conducted by Anne Manson performing the works of Armenian composer Gomidas Vartabed. The Remembrance Concert Tour , dedicated to victims of all genocide, will be performed with San Francisco Performances, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the Vancouver Symphony, at Roy Thomson Hall, with the Boston Celebrity Series, and in a return to Carnegie Halls Zankel Hall. Operatic engagements include debuts at the Teatro del Liceu in the title role of Lincoronazione di Poppea and with Opéra Français de New York performing the title role of Kurt Weills Marie Galante, as well as a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Ms. Bayrakdarian also appears in recital with her husband, pianist Serouj Kradjian, in Duluth, Minnesota, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Calgary, Alberta.
Highlights of Ms. Bayrakdarians recent seasons have included performances as Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at the Metropolitan Opera, Zerlina at the Salzburg Festivals celebration of Mozarts birthday, debuting the role of Mélisande in Pélleas et Mélisande at the Canadian Opera Company, singing title role in The Cunning Little Vixen at the Saito Kinen Festival under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, Le nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden and the Houston Grand Opera and her role debut as Blanche in Robert Carsens production of Poulencs Dialogues of the Carmelites at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She also participated in the world-premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Sheers one-act opera To Hell and Back with Broadway legend Patti LuPone and San Franciscos Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
Isabel Bayrakdarian sings on the Grammy® award-winning soundtrack of the blockbuster film The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, and her voice can also be heard in the multiple award-winning Canadian film Ararat. Ms. Bayrakdarian has been honored with four Juno awards, Canadas 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; on another trip there recently she recorded a disc of songs by the countrys national composer, Gomidas Vartabed (1869-1935), with her husband and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra which is available on the Nonesuch label. Expanding her vast discography, Ms. Bayrkdarian was a guest soloist with the Canadian band Delerium on their 2007 Grammy® nominated dance remix Angelicus.
Ms. Bayrakdarian has received many grants and other awards in addition to the First Prize in the Operalia: four 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 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.