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Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano Remembrance Tour:Celebrating Composer Gomidas Vartabed Saturday, October 4, 8pm |
—Time Magazine
Program
BARTÓK: Romanian Folk Dances
RAVEL: Deux Melodies Hebraiques
NIKOLAOS SKALKOTTAS: Greek Dances, Opus 11
GOMIDAS VARTABED: Songs of Yearning, Songs of Nature of Love, Dances for Piano, and Songs for children and humor
GIDEON KLEIN: From Partita for Strings, Variations on a Moravian Folksong
ENCORE:
GOMIDAS: "Oh, What a Delight!" & "May Sleep Descend on Your Beautiful Eyes"
About This Performance
Although known to Bay Area audiences for her creation of the role of Stephanie in Jake Heggie’s To Hell and Back (and as the voice on the soundtracks for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and director Atom Egoyan’s Ararat), critics agree that soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian shines exceptionally brightly in music of her Armenian heritage. Inspired by her first trip to her ancestral home, this virtuosic soprano celebrates the music of Gomidas Vartabed (1869-1935), Armenia’s national composer, regarded by many as the founder of modern Armenian classical music. Gomidas’s rich folk music is at the heart of a program that includes works by Bartók and Ravel, and that features traditional music of persecuted nations, celebrating the legacy of people whose lives have been tragically lost. Joining Bayrakdarian to celebrate Vartabed’s heritage, are Serouj Kradjian, piano, Hampic Djabourian, duduk, (both of Armenian heritage) and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Anne Manson.
Artist Biography
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 2007–08 season Ms. Bayrakdarian reprises her signature role of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, at the Canadian Opera Company and the Bayerische Staatsoper conducted by Peter Schneider. She will return to the Canadian Opera Company to debut the role of Mélisande in Pélleas et Mélisande, as well as perform her role debut as Norina in Don Pasquale with Opera Colorado and the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen at the Saito Kinen Festival under the baton of Seiji Ozawa. Ms. Bayrakdarian also appears in recital with her husband, pianist Serouj Kradjian at the Harriman-Jewell Series in Kansas City and at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. A consummate Mozartarian, some of her most notable roles include Susanna, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Pamina in The Magic Flute, along with Marzelline in Fidelio, Adina in L'elisir d'amore and Rosina in The Barber of Seville. Additionally, Ms. Bayrakdarian excels in the baroque repertoire, singing Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo, and Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Romilda (Xerxes), and Emilia (Flavio). She is renowned as well for her work in obscure repertoire, such as Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini and Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge, in which she made her Metropolitan Opera debut.
Operatic highlights of Ms. Bayrakdarian’s recent seasons have included Pamina in Julie Taymour’s sensational production of Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera, and her opening night performance as Susanna opposite Bryn Terfel's Figaro in Act I of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. In honor of Mozart’s 250th birthday celebration in 2006 she performed Zerlina at the Salzburg Festival (which is now available on DVD) and in Le nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden and the Houston Grand Opera. In 2007, Ms. Bayrakdarian returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago for her role debut as Blanche in Robert Carsen’s production of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, where she also triumphed in the new 2006 production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Often partnered with Serouj Kradjian, Ms. Bayrakdarian has also triumphed in recital in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Berkeley, Boston, Edmonton, Ottawa, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver and elsewhere. Last season they toured Canada together, and performed at New York’s newest recital space—the Gilder Lehrman hall in the Morgan Library, as well as in Palm Beach, Toronto, Savannah and Tokyo. Continuing her passion for wide-ranging repertoire, Ms. Bayrakdarian presented her first evening of tangos in a concert at Toronto’s new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, and she participated in world-premiere performances of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s one-act opera To Hell and Back. This production costarred Broadway legend Patti LuPone, with Nicholas McGegan conducting San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
An accomplished concert artist, Ms. Bayrakdarian performs regularly with orchestras in San Francisco, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and at home in Canada with the Toronto and Montréal Symphonies, Tafelmusik, Les Violons du Roy, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and other major Canadian performing organizations, as well as with numerous groups in Europe. Ms. Bayrakdarian’s recent orchestral appearances included debuts with the Chicago and Montréal Symphonies—both in the Mahler Fourth Symphony—with conductors David Zinman and James Conlon respectively.
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’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. Her recording Mozart arie & duetti with fellow Canadians Russell Braun and Michael Schade earned a fourth Juno award in the category of “Best Classical Album.” Additional solo recordings available of Ms. Bayrakdarian include Azulão, a disc of songs by Spanish composers, and Cleopatra where she portrays the Egyptian queen in arias from several Baroque operas. Her first solo CD, Joyous Light, presents Armenian sacred music. She has also recorded Mahler’s Second Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Her most recent disc, Tango Notturno on the CBC Records label, has already received wide praise. 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 country’s national composer, Gomidas Vartabed (1869-1935), with her husband and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. 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.
The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra explores repertoire rarely touched by large symphony orchestras. Established in 1972, the Orchestra presents an annual nine-concert subscription series in Winnipeg. Co-presentations with CBC Radio began in 1984, and Canadians across the country (roughly 3.7 million annually) and fans around the world enjoy the Orchestra in frequent broadcasts.
The Orchestra represented Manitoba at the Calgary Winter Olympics as part of the International Olympic Arts Festival in 1988, and at the biennial meeting of the Association of Canadian Orchestras in 1990 in Victoria, BC, was presented with a SOCAN Award of Merit for “the imaginative programming of contemporary Canadian music,” due in no small part to the fact that the Orchestra premieres up to six new compositions each season.
In 1995, the Orchestra released its first compact disc on Sweden’s BIS label, Canadian Music for Chamber Orchestra, which contains works by Andrew MacDonald, Michael Matthews and Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté. It was the first time a North American orchestra had been recorded on the prestigious label. A highlight of 1997 was the release of a limited edition 25th Anniversary CD featuring a live recording of the CBC Radio’s 60th Anniversary concert. In 1998, the Orchestra released A Britten Serenade on CBC Records, followed by: Gerald Finzi: Meditation (2000), Sea Sketches (2003) and So Much To Tell, with Measha Brueggergosman (2004).
In its most ambitious touring project to date, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra visited Southern Italy in 1999 to perform at various music festivals under the direction of guest conductor Fabio Mastrangelo. A very successful tour of British Columbia in 2003 followed, also an appearance on the live national broadcast of the Juno Awards from Winnipeg in 2005. In summer 2008, the Orchestra made its debut appearance at the National Arts Centre on Canada Day at Harborfront in Toronto.
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