Reader Submission: Vartan Gabrielian

Vartan Gabrielian

Armenian-Canadian bass-barihunk Vartan Gabrielian served as an alter boy at St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic church in Toronto and began voice lessons at age fourteen. He went on to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and has been studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia since 2012. He is currently part of the Russian Opera Workshop where he performed a concert of Rachmaninoff songs and arias earlier this year. In March, he performed Tchaikovsky's Don Juan Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart, along with O du mein holder Abendstern from Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser.

In July, he'll perform the King in Handel's Ariodante at the Chautauqua Music Festival's Fletcher Music Hall, followed by Colline in Puccini's La behème in August at the Chautauqua Amphitheater with the Music School Festival Orchestra.

Roles at Curtis have included Prince Gudal in Anton Rubinstein's The Demon, the Loudspeaker in Ullmann's Emperor of Atlantis, Mago and Eustazio in Handel's Rinaldo, Masetto  in Mozart's Don Giovanni, M. Javelinot in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and the title role in Le nozze di Figaro.

Reader Submission: Jeffrey Williams

Jeffrey Williams

We've said it numerous times, but it's worth repeating: Some of our favorite barihunks have been reader submissions. We have a couple of them to share with you this week beginning with Pennsylvania native Jeffrey Williams, who was spotted by a loyal reader in Philadelphia. 

This past summer, Williams attended the Russian Opera Workshop at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.  Following his time at the Russian Opera Workshop, he spent the remainder of the summer with barihunk Tom Krause at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and in Sachrang, Germany.  Previously, he studied abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, with French baritone, Didier Frédéric.  For two summers, Williams also attended Middlebury College’s German School and German for Singers program, studying with the late James McDonald, Ruth Ann McDonald, and Bettina Matthias. 

Williams has portrayed Lord Ruthven in Marschner’s Der Vampyr, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Prince Yeletsky in Pique Dame, the title role in Rachmaninoff’s Aleko, the title role in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Rabonnier (La rondine), Le Commissaire (Orphée), Jack Point (Yeomen of the Guard), Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring), Strephon (Iolanthe) and Marchese d’Obigny (La Traviata), as well as opera chorus work with the Washington National Opera, the late Baltimore Opera, and Florida Grand Opera.

Jeffrey Williams

He will be Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the University of Miami’s Frost Opera Theater and the Young Patronesses of the Opera (FGO) In-School Opera program with 35 performances throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties January-March 2013.  Ticket information will be made available in early January. Performances will also be streamed live online.

Williams currently studies with mezzo-soprano Robynne Redmon and baritone Tom Krause.  He is also a staff singer at Plymouth Congregational Church in Coconut Grove, FL.

Don't forget to buy your 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar before the New Year begins in three weeks: