Biography

Canadian-Armenian bass-baritone Vartan Gabrielian begins the 2025/26 season with his house and role debut at the Royal Ballet & Opera as Robert (Les Vêpres siciliennes). He returns to the Opéra national de Paris to perform Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Zuniga (Carmen), and Angelotti (Tosca), before making his Opéra de Lausanne debut as Sparafucile (Rigoletto).

Recent career highlights include Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress) at the Verbier Festival, Lo Zio Bonzo (Madama Butterfly) and Lord Gualtiero Valton (I Puritani) at the Opera national de Paris, Basilio (The Barber of Seville) at the Des Moines Metro Opera, and his Wagnerian role debut as Fasolt (Das Rheingold) with the Edmonton Opera. As a resident artist at the Opera San Jose he also performed Basilio (The Barber of Seville), Frère Laurent (Romeo and Juliet), and Capitán (Florencia en el Amazonas). 

As a recipient of numerous awards, Gabrielian was a finalist of the 2022 Belvedere Competition and a National Semi-Finalist of the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. He has been generously supported by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Sylva Gelber Foundation, Career Bridges Schuyler Foundation, Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation, Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the George London Foundation.  

He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the Curtis Institute of Music and is an alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company’s ensemble and the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice program.