Ani Maldjian – Soprano
Armenian-American Soprano Ani Maldjian has been described as a "remarkable soprano", with a voice that is "richly mature and full of lyric nuance", and her singing "elegant, commanding, brilliant, fresh and strong…definitely a name to watch as she rises through the ranks of young sopranos." This 2009-2010 season, Maldjian makes her debut with West Bay Opera as Musetta in La Bohème and with Townsend Opera as Valencienne in The Merry Widow. She returns to Opera Santa Barbara in November, as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. Later in the spring, she returns to Long Beach Opera for a fourth season, as Madame Mao in Nixon in China, and in the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank. In the summer, she returns to Sun Valley, Idaho, for a concert with Sun Valley Opera. Future engagements include a return to Seattle Opera, and her debut with Opera in the Heights.
Maldjian has performed over 25 major operatic roles and received tremendous acclaim for her one-woman opera in the title role of The Diary of Anne Frank by Grigori Frid. She has worked with companies such as Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Atlanta Opera, and has made her international debut in Greece. She holds a BFA in Music from Cal Arts, with additional training at Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Music Academy of the West, Aspen Festival, and OperaWorks. Maldjian was the First Place Winner of the 2005 Western Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and sang on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in 2006.