Isabel Bayrakdarian to perform Armenian folk songs in Sidney

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian-born acclaimed soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian will perform at Mary Winspear Centre, Sidney, BC, Canada, on Monday, November 28.

According to Times Colonist, on the program for Sidney, she'll breathe life into classics by Franz Liszt, Pauline Viardot, Hector Berlioz, Gioacchino Rossini, Fernando Obradors, Isaac Albeniz and Manuel de Falla - but also perform a series of Armenian folk songs.

"Obviously, it's very deep and instinctive and maternal and part of my identity," she said of performing the songs by celebrated Armenian composer Komitas Vardaped. "I just deliver. And as a result, I think what you hear is really the purest way I can sing."

Born in Lebanon, Bayrakdarian moved to Toronto as a teen. Although she's of Armenian heritage, she had never visited her homeland until 2004. The trip was the subject of a documentary, A Long Journey Home.