SOPRANO ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN IN CARNEGIE HALL TRIBUTE TO CATHOLICOS ARAM I

On Thursday, November 13, soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian will appear at Carnegie Hall in a concert titled “Ancestral Songs, Prayers & Lullabies.” The performance is part of the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the enthronement of His Holiness Catholicos Aram I. 

The program, written for voice, flute, harp, and duduk, brings together medieval hymns, Marian chants, and Armenian folk repertoire. Works by Gomidas and his students Parsegh Ganachian and Mihran Toumajan—songs, prayers, and lullabies that preserve fragments of a disrupted tradition—form the heart of the evening. Bayrakdarian will be joined by Ellie Choate (harp), Jill Felber (flute), and Mher Mnatsakanyan (duduk). The concert is expected to run about ninety minutes with intermission. 

Bayrakdarian, born in Lebanon and raised in Canada, is recognized internationally both on the operatic stage and in concert performance. A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition, she has appeared at major houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Salzburg Festival. Her operatic roles range from Mozart’s Susanna (“Le nozze di Figaro”) and Pamina (“The Magic Flute”) to Debussy’s Mélisande and Poulenc’s Blanche. 

Beyond opera, she has performed with leading orchestras under conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Alan Gilbert. Her versatility extends to recordings, from Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 and Respighi’s “Il tramonto” to the Grammy-winning soundtrack of “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.” She is also the recipient of four Juno Awards for Best Classical Album, among other honors in both Canada and Armenia. 

Currently a professor of voice and director of Opera Theatre at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Bayrakdarian continues to balance performance with teaching. Her upcoming Carnegie Hall recital promises to reward the audience with some of the finest strands of Armenian music as we come together to celebrate the pontificate of His Holiness.