{"id":119444,"date":"2025-11-13T11:59:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T16:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=119444"},"modified":"2025-11-13T13:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:00:02","slug":"interview-armenian-canadian-soprano-isabel-bayrakdarian-talks-ancestral-songs-prayers-lullabies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/11\/13\/interview-armenian-canadian-soprano-isabel-bayrakdarian-talks-ancestral-songs-prayers-lullabies\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Armenian-Canadian Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian Talks About Ancestral Songs, Prayers, and Lullabies"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_119447\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-119447\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-119447\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Copy-of-Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-11-13T115835.189.jpg\" alt=\"Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian (Photo: Zach Mendez)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Copy-of-Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-11-13T115835.189.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Copy-of-Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-11-13T115835.189-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Copy-of-Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-11-13T115835.189-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Copy-of-Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-11-13T115835.189-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-119447\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian (Photo: Zach Mendez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Canadian-Armenian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian will be performing a program titled Ancestral Songs, Prayers, and Lullabies at Toronto\u2019s Koerner Hall on November 22. The music includes Marian chants as well as Armenian folk songs and lullabies.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019ll be joined by Ellie Choate (harp), Rayo A Furuta (flute), and Mher Mnatsakanyan (duduk), with live drawing by Kevork Mourad. Mourad has performed with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Kim Kashkashian, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, among others.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a program that has been years in the making, and a project that combines music, history, and cultural preservation.<\/p>\n<p>From the collected songs by Mihran Toumajan (1890-1973), arr. John Hodian, with Video and Visual Art: Kevork Mourad, performed by Isabel Bayrakdarian, Soprano, Ellie Choate, Harp, Ruben Harutyunyan, Duduk:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fqCLqUGugKE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>Isabel Bayrakdarian: The Interview<\/h2>\n<p>The program for Bayrakdarian\u2019s concert stems from her 2021 album Armenian Songs for Children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is an extension of that project,\u201d she says. The majority of the selections she\u2019ll perform come from that album, and the research she did to assemble the material.<\/p>\n<p>Along with lullabies and other children\u2019s songs, Bayrakdarian introduces another element into the program. \u201cPrefaced by sacred music, because that is the most authentic expression of that spiritual dimension,\u201d she explains. \u201cThat spiritual dimension is gaining much more prominence in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Based now in California, where she is a Professor of Voice, Director of Opera Theatre, and Head of Voice Area in the Music Department at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), the Canadian-Armenian vocalist is looking forward to returning to Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be the best way to say hello to my Toronto family,\u201d she says. \u201cIt&#8217;s my way of saying hello with a blessing. I\u2019m so full of gratitude for my roots in Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She credits her musical background in Canada and its Toronto connections with preparing her for what has become a prominent international career. \u201cIt&#8217;s a very, very special place for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The Concert Program<\/h3>\n<p>Assembling the material for Armenian Songs for Children involved years of research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt starts with a group of prayers and chants,\u201d Bayrakdarian explains, \u201cand then moves specifically to the play songs and lullabies from different regions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That includes works by Armenian priest and musicologist Komitas Vartabed. \u201cThe father of Armenian music and his students,\u201d Isabel says. Now that she\u2019s a teacher herself, she has a new understanding of his role.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m at that stage where I&#8217;m so proud of my students, but I&#8217;m curious \u2014 what is it from me that they&#8217;re taking?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, she includes the music of Komitas\u2019 students Parsegh Ganachian and Mihran Toumajan. \u201cWhat did they take from their master?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yeraz\/Dream \u0535\u0580\u0561\u0566\/\u0535\u057d \u056c\u057d\u0565\u0581\u056b \u0574\u056b \u0561\u0576\u0578\u0582\u0577 \u0571\u0561\u0575\u0576 by Komitas, performed by Isabel Bayrakdarian, Soprano, Ellie Choate, Harp, Ray Furuta, Flute, Arranged by Artur Avanesov, with Video Visual Art by Kevork Mourad:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tD3WJqGrYtc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>An Interrupted History<\/h3>\n<p>Before WWI, the Christian Armenian people lived within what was then known as the Ottoman Empire, a large area that includes what is now much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. The Empire lasted from the 14th century until the early 20th century, and became a major world power centred in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), which was founded in 1453.<\/p>\n<p>Officially an Islamic Caliphate, the large territory incorporated many different ethnic groups, many of whom were Christian and Jewish.<\/p>\n<p>Already in significant decline by the early 20th century, during WWI, the ruling party, fearing that Armenians would declare independence, began a systematic program of persecution and genocide that included deportation to the Syrian Desert and forced conversion to Islam.<\/p>\n<p>About 1 million Armenians died from what became death marches \u2014 forced to relocate to Syria, and denied food and water along the way. Aid organizations were prohibited from helping them, and paramilitary groups also massacred many in various regions.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the history and culture of Armenia is an interrupted and often fragmented history.<\/p>\n<p>The material comes from various sources, and what Isabel discovered often presented different versions of the same song. One source was a survivor of the Armenian genocide, later living in San Francisco, who offered their remembrances decades later. Other songs and music were collected before the genocide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou compare and contrast. I just wanted to add the teacher and what inspired the teacher himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Komitas, as she points out, played an enormous role in the development and arrangement of Armenian sacred music. He composed a mass that is still sung in Armenian churches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s brilliant,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are now the students of his students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bayrakdarian worked with various collaborators on the project. \u201cI have three different arrangers for this project.\u201d One, she explains, stays true to the original spirit of Komitas\u2019 music. Composer John Hodian is another, and his arrangements are more modern in approach. \u201cIt&#8217;s a very different arrangement. Basically it&#8217;s 21st century. We are a pastiche, a quilt of so many influences together, but the message of our identities still passes through.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Taking The Program On The Road<\/h3>\n<p>She\u2019ll be performing the same program in Carnegie Hall and at the Scottish Rite Museum and Library in Lexington (Boston) before hitting Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m very excited by this program. I get to repeat it in two other places,\u201d she says. \u201cIt&#8217;s wonderful to be able to take this repertoire on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The concerts and tour was originally scheduled to commence just after the album release, but got sidelined by the COVID pandemic. She was determined, however, to bring it to the stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome things just need to be heard,\u201d Isabel says. \u201cI didn&#8217;t just do this as my personal pet project. It&#8217;s a mission,\u201d she continues. \u201cIt has to serve a higher good \u2014 preserving the fragmented past. It is a fragmented past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her role at home as a mother also played into the project. \u201cI&#8217;m raising children, and I know how important it is to talk to them about the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gakavig\/Song of the Partridge\/\u053f\u0561\u0584\u0561\u0582\u056b \u0535\u0580\u0563\u0568 by Gomidas, performed by Isabel Bayrakdarian, Soprano, Ellie Choate, Harp, Pay Furuta, Flute, arranged by Artur Avanesov, with Video Visual Art by Kevork Mourad:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IKS9QlVcVz8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Universality<\/h3>\n<p>While it represents a distinctly Armenian flavour, the music sung to children is recognizable in its character, which is remarkably similar across global cultures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[It\u2019s] realizing at the same time that we&#8217;re all the same,\u201d she explains. \u201cSo this commonality of human experience, those surroundings could be very, very different, but at the core, we are the same human beings, having the same experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The difference is the urgency of preserving music and traditions that are rapidly being forgotten. \u201cThese songs are on the verge of extinction. Nobody&#8217;s singing them anymore,\u201d she says. \u201cBut they&#8217;re charming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the pieces she was sent during the research phase came from a region outside Armenia, but immediately struck a chord.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to stop and say, I know this! I grew up singing it in Kindergarten,\u201d she says, \u201cbut nobody knows its roots.\u201d Sometimes, she was able to piece together the missing context. \u201cPutting a location on a map to the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bayrakdarian was born in Zahl\u00e9, Lebanon, where her Armenian family lived before coming to Canada when she was a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome songs were written in the diaspora in Lebanon,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhen I sing them now, it&#8217;s images of happiness.\u201d That feeling persists, despite the fact that she grew up during the Lebanese Civil War. \u201cBut, when I hear this music, it&#8217;s spring time, it&#8217;s happiness. It has a way of comforting, a way of soothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She sang those same lullabies and songs to her own children. It\u2019s her hope that others will too. \u201cI specifically did this project in a key that&#8217;s singable. Just sing it to keep it alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a link to the past, and an act of resistance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat reinforces you, that makes you stand to claim your spot on this earth, and not apologize for it. Because you weren&#8217;t supposed to live,\u201d she says. \u201cIt&#8217;s meaningful for me on many, many levels. Cultural preservation is, but more than anything, the continuation of tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She recognizes that songs have the power to convey that tradition in a greater capacity than words alone. \u201cSongs with words are basically two messengers.\u201d It takes more brain processing power to learn both. \u201cTherefore it has more potential to wake up memories,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<h3>A Journey Into The Past<\/h3>\n<p>Her research and journey into the roots of Armenian culture began when she truly realized how much was lost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was many years ago,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI realized it the day when my nephews and nieces were listening to some not so good Armenian lullabies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It came in contrast to the songs she was singing to her own children. She realized that there was no way for others, however, to access what she remembered. Songs are much more than songs. \u201cThey are the reservoirs of so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The songs she heard her relatives singing were simplistic and electronically generated, and not of the same quality as those held in her memories. \u201cChildren need to have deep rich and complex material, not simplified versions,\u201d she says. \u201cThat&#8217;s how it all started. Then it became a much larger [idea].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She wondered what other new generations of Armenians were listening to. Her own son would easily fall asleep when she sang to him. \u201cThe whole motherhood\/teacher converged in this project.<br \/>\nThis was born [&#8230;] ultimately, especially, by honouring places that no longer existed. It was a way to honour my own ancestors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Isabel notes she was named after her grandmother, a survivor of the Genocide. \u201cIt was a way for me to honour her and her journey of survival, and just to give voice to the silenced voices. I wasn&#8217;t able to find music from her exact place of birth,\u201d she adds. \u201cBut I&#8217;m sure with more research I will be able to dig something up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The source material includes full songs that had been transcribed, as well as segments and excerpts, some that were only three or six bars long, others without words.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI cannot put these back into obscurity. I just can&#8217;t. I have to put them to life with authenticity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some excerpts became part of a medley of songs in the same keys. \u201cSo that they are alive again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sleep My Child Lullaby\/\u0554\u0578\u0582\u0576 \u0535\u0572\u056b\u0580 \u054a\u0561\u056c\u0561\u057d, performed by Isabel Bayrakdarian, Soprano Ellie Choate, Harp, with Visuals and Video by Kevork Mourad:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ymo0Q_el7NA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>A Passion Project<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a passion project. I can&#8217;t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Audiences can expect entertainment, education, and discovery. Those who grew up Armenian will likely recognize the Komitas pieces. But, you don\u2019t have to be part of that background to enjoy the music.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn an elemental level, all lullabies speak to the soul,\u201d she says. \u201cThey resonate with your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Song is one of the first ways we communicate with children on an elemental level. \u201cBreath is expressing itself. It is expressing something old, timeless, and going into the air as a sound wave, and coming to your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The music connects no matter what your age.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLulabies are always soothing,\u201d she says. \u201cThey bring you in a much more aware state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bayrakdarian is currently training to use music in healing practices. \u201cI truly believe in using [&#8230;] the vibrations to get to a higher state,\u201d she says. \u201cMusic can help us.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The Concert<\/h3>\n<p>Audience members who arrive early will be treated to a performance by students of The Royal Conservatory from 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Find other concert details and tickets for her Koerner Hall performance [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcmusic.com\/events-and-performances\/isabel-bayrakdarian\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? 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