Isabel Bairakdarian to perform at Art Song Festival in Ohio

PanARMENIAN.Net - Canadian singer of Armenian heritage, Isabelle Bayrakdaryan will perform at Art Song Festival due on Mar. 20 in Ohio. Isabelle will offer selections by Shubert, Bellini, Berlios, Ravel to the accompaniment of pianist Serge Karagyan.

Isabelle will also present Armenian folk songs edited by Komitas. "I will sing the sons of my forefathers like they were performed in old times. Though born in Lebanon, I was raised in an atmosphere imbued with the Armenian language and culture," the signer said.

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.

 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.