Waterloo Record, Canada
April 8 2006
Passion for song
Isabel Bayrakdarian uses her voice as an expression of faith in God
LIANNE ELLIOTT
PHOTO BY LINDSAY LOZON
Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian is performing Bach’s St. Matthew Passion
with the Kitchener Waterloo Philharmonic Choir next Friday at the
Centre in the Square in Kitchener.
KITCHENER (Apr 8, 2006)
Wherever Isabel Bayrakdarian is, she’ll slip into the nearest church
and beg to sing a few songs with the choir.
She’ll put on whatever second-hand vestment the choirmaster can
scrounge up and line up alongside the other singers.
The Canadian soprano has done this while travelling through Europe,
North America and the Middle East.
Most of the time, the singers in the choirs will recognize her. They
realize the young woman begging to sing alongside them is actually
one of the fastest rising stars in the world of classical music.
But sometimes, Bayrakdarian can remain anonymous as she joins a
choir’s ranks.
“They can’t believe someone has come out of the blue to sing,” says
Bayrakdarian, who is performing with the Kitchener Waterloo
Philharmonic Choir on Friday.
“Sometimes they’ll say, ‘You should try taking singing lessons, you
have a good voice.’ ”
Bayrakdarian has performed with world-renown companies like the
Metropolitan Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
She has had triumphant concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall, she’s
won three Juno Awards and she sang on the Grammy-winning Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers soundtrack.
But still, she’s passionate about singing with small church choirs.
She joins them when she’s at home and when she’s on tour.
“What I love about that is that I’m expressing my faith and the
existence of God through the voice that he has given me,” she says,
on the telephone from her Toronto home.
“You’re using the voice to praise the one who created it.”
This is why Bayrakdarian is thrilled to be part of the philharmonic
choir’s traditional Good Friday concert.
This year, the choir will perform J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at
the Centre in the Square.
The piece tells the Good Friday story, its lyrics using the words of
the Gospel of St. Matthew to tell of Jesus’ betrayal, suffering and
death.
“It’s what Christ went through,” Bayrakdarian says. “It’s moving as
well as humbling.
“To be given the opportunity to sing it and be a part of it — I
almost don’t feel we should be paid to do this.”
The concert promises to be spectacular, drawing 160 singers from the
Philharmonic choirs, a few dozen musicians from the
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and seven world-class soloists, including
Bayrakdarian.
It’s a piece of music that conductor Howard Dyck is passionate about.
“There is no doubt that the audience will be taken by the
magnificence and beauty of the music,” he says. “If they are
Christians, they’ll be taken and deeply touched by the story that is
so central to Christian faith.
“Even if they’re not Christians, there’s a deep humanity to Bach that
will touch them too.”
He has brought together a list of prominent singers to sing the key
parts of the passion.
Tenor John Aler, a great American singer, will play the crucial role
of the evangelist, the narrator of the passion. Gary Relyea, one of
Canada’s best bass-baritones, will sing the part of Jesus.
A Canadian up-and-comer, baritone Peter McGillivray is singing the
words of Peter, Pilot and Judas.
The philharmonic choir will sing the group parts — the disciples,
the mob, the high priests. Choir members will also sing verses that
allow Bach to interpret the work, asking what it means for the
listener.
Also on board are mezzo-soprano Susan Platts, a Kitchener woman who
studied under opera star Jessye Norman, and Joseph Schnurr, a young
Kitchener tenor who studies in Berlin.
And of course, there’s Bayrakdarian.
She has been singing ever since she was a little girl growing up in
Lebanon. At just 3 years old, she started singing with her mother,
sisters and brothers in the choir at their Armenian Apostolic Church,
the faith they belong to as Armenians.
But Bayrakdarian never imagined she could turn singing into a career.
After she and her family immigrated to Canada, she did a degree in
biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto.
“I was always good in math and sciences,” she says. “I thought that
was the path I was meant to do.”
Still, she took singing lessons on the side and entered local
competitions. In 2000, she won the Operalia competition, one of the
most prestigious international competitions for young singers. Her
singing career was born.
She now performs around the world and has made several recordings.
Last weekend, she and her husband, pianist Serouj Kradjian, won a
Juno for their recording of Viardot-Garcia: Lieder Chansons Canzoni
Mazurkan.
But Bayrakdarian has never performed St. Matthew Passion before. This
week, she and Dyck spent a day rehearsing her part at the piano in
her Toronto home.
Bayrakdarian will come to Kitchener on Wednesday to start rehearsing
with the full choir and orchestra.
“It went smoothly with Howard,” she says of the first rehearsal. “I’m
sure it will be just magical with an orchestra.”
CONCERT
What : J.S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion
When: Good Friday (April 14)
Who: Kitchener Waterloo Philharmonic Choir
with guests:
Isabel Bayrakdarian
Susan Platts
John Aler
Peter McGillivray
Joseph Schnurr
Gary Relyea
Where: Centre in the Square
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $33-$39
Phone: 519-578-1570
1-800-265-8977
From: Baghdasarian