The Birmingham News , AL
May 1 2005
Bayrakdarian finds way to engineer a career in music
MICHAEL HUEBNER
News staff writer
Isabel Bayrakdarian’s life so far:
Born to Armenian parents, raised in Lebanon. Moved to Canada at 15.
Interrupted a biomedical engineering program at the University of
Toronto to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions.
Got the degree (with honors), won more vocal competitions, debuted at
the Met, Chicago Lyric and Canadian Opera, sang on a “Lord of the
Rings” soundtrack, performed early music in Salzburg, Austria.
Got married in an Armenian monastery to pianist Serouj Kradjian.
Cut several solo albums, one of which pictures her in a Cleopatra
outfit.
“When you open it, it becomes a centerfold, but in a nice way,” she
quips. “Good marketing.”
Try to learn how to pronounce her eight-syllable name. She’s only 30,
and likely has a long career ahead of her. Starting with a recital of
Viardot and Rossini songs with hubby Kradjian at the piano, tonight
at the Alys Stephens Center.
Engineering a career
When Bayrakdarian (“bay-rack-dare-ee-an”) entered college, her
counselors warned her not to take singing lessons. Reluctantly, she
took their advice.
“I wanted to major in engineering and minor in music,” she said by
phone last week from Edmonton, Alberta. “They just laughed at me.
They literally did. They said, `Do you have any idea of the workload
you’re going to get?’ They knew what they were talking about.”
Still torn between her love for music and a career in science,
Bayrakdarian started having second thoughts about her destiny.
“It was the darkest period of my life because I had no music in it,”
she recalled. So she took voice lessons on the sly at Toronto’s Royal
Conservatory, doing a balancing act between the two disciplines.
“I can’t describe how different they were. They’re polar opposites.
One is plain logic and hard facts. You have to have a technical
background. You’re doing absolutely no creativity, like music.”
It was that creative spark that prompted her to enter the Met
auditions in 1997. It was one of her three most memorable experiences
in her professional life so far.
“You have to be young to do those things,” said Bayrakdarian. “Back
then, I thought, `I’ll just go out there and sing.’ It was a
wonderful feeling to be on this stage and to sing my two arias, even
if I never sang at this place again. Now, I would be terrified.”
The second was the Grammy-winning recording of “Lord of the Rings:
The Two Towers.”
“That was pure fun,” she said. “We did it in Abbey Road studios, in
the exact same place where the Beatles recorded. They’ve kept
everything the way it was. You can tell by the colors. They could
have changed the colors.”
Also on her list was “every single time I’m on stage. Regardless of
what stage I’m on, I’m allowed to express my own reactions to a word,
or to the music, and make it unique. And nothing says it better than
recitals. Its just you and the audience and the piano taking a
five-minute journey for each song. I’ll never get tired of it.”
For the Birmingham recital, she’ll perform songs by Gioacchino
Rossini. Kradjian, who has racked up impressive credentials in Europe
and North America as a solo artist, chamber musician and orchestral
soloist, will accompany. Bayrakdarian will also offer songs by the
19th-century composer Pauline Viardot, each of which has a distinct
national character. She and Kradjian recorded them recently on the
Analekta label.
“Viardot was able to change her style to suit the language in every
single song,” she said. “When Viardot composed lieder, they sounded
like lieder. The Spanish songs have the fire in them; the French have
the aloofness.”
Ancestral wedding
In Bayrakdarian’s private life, her wedding tops her “most memorable”
list. Although her grandparents were born in Armenia, she hadn’t set
foot on her ancestral soil until a year ago. Prompted by a Canadian
film crew, which followed her to film a documentary, she sang
liturgical songs in the churches and monasteries, many of which she
had recorded for her first album, “Joyous Light.” The experience
convinced her to have her wedding in a 4th-century monastery in
Keghart.
“I felt an omnipowerful presence,” she said. “I felt the steps of
thousands of people who had come here. At that moment, I made the
decision. This is where I’m getting married.”
Many family members came for the July wedding. Most had never been to
Armenia.
“It was a beautiful opportunity to see their ancestral land,” she
said. “It should have been done years ago.”
Bayrakdarian’s voice has been compared with Cecilia Bartoli’s.
Although the turning point of her singing career came when she heard
the Italian diva perform, she doesn’t emulate her.
“The ease with which Bartoli carried herself inspired me to seek my
own freedom, to be confident in what I do,” she asserts. “I needed to
find my own identity.”
Like most things in her life so far, that hasn’t been an obstacle.