Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano, with Serouj Kradjian, piano, at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium, Friday, Nov. 18 7: 30 p.m.
SOPRANO Isabel Bayrakdarian and her pianist/ composer husband, Serouj Kradjian, have been touring B.C. in small intimate venues and that suits the singer just fine.
Since her career took off 10 years ago after winning some big vocal competitions, Bayrakdarian has spent a lot of her time singing with orchestras in opera houses and concert halls, performing for big crowds.
Bayrakdarian says she loves recitals partly because they're a return to the performance experiences she had while she was earning a degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto and studying voice privately on the side. Unlike many professional singers, Bayrakdarian did not earn a music degree and had not considered a career in music until she started winning prizes and attracting excited notice while at school. Though she completed her engineering degree, she went immediately into singing after graduation.
"Because I was not a student in a music institution, I didn't have a lot of chances to sing opera or to perform with even a student orchestra, so in many ways I got initiated into the world of singing through the recital. It was the only platform available to me," Bayrakdarian says.
"I embraced it and I loved it, and that has a lot to do with why I love recitals so much today. As much as I love immersing myself in a role in opera, recitals formed the foundation of my passion for music. I love the art of the recital and thinking about how to put a program together. It's a delicate balance of presenting what you enjoy, what the audience wants and choosing unfamiliar pieces that you think the audience will enjoy."
Bayrakdarian performs regularly with Kradjian, a pianist, composer and arranger. They met as teenagers through their Toronto church and reconnected about 10 years later when working in recital. "It was the cliché of the singer falling in love with her pianist," she laughs. They married in 2004.
Bayrakdarian says she and Kradjian share a special connection onstage because of their life offstage.
"I have the highest regard for him as a pianist, and he is so in tune with what I am going through at any moment, to the non-singing things that contribute or deter from a performance. If there are gaffes from me or the piano, we know how to overcome it. He's also my best set of ears. I always value his opinion."
She says that as with any musicians, when she and her husband rehearse they sometimes have disagreements about tempo or phrasing.
"We are both strongminded people, and we have differences of opinion. I could see how that could be a problem if there were not love and trust between two people, but we have found common ground, and it's worked beautifully."
