Biography
During the 2026/27 season, Canadian-Armenian bass-baritone Vartan Gabrielian returns to the Opéra national de Paris to perform Masetto in a new production of Don Giovanni, Horatio in Hamlet, Officer in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Le Duc de Vérone in Roméo et Juliette. He also returns to Edmonton Opera as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville.
Recent career highlights include his house and role debut at the Royal Ballet & Opera as Robert in Les Vêpres siciliennes, his Opéra de Lausanne debut as Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Zuniga in Carmen, and Angelotti in Tosca at the Opéra national de Paris, Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress at the Verbier Festival, Lo Zio Bonzo in Madama Butterfly and Lord Gualtiero Valton in I Puritani at the Opéra national de Paris, Basilio in The Barber of Seville at Des Moines Metro Opera, and his Wagnerian role debut as Fasolt in Das Rheingold with Edmonton Opera.
He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Vocal Performance from the Curtis Institute of Music and is an alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble Studio and the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program.
Awards and Accolades
Gabrielian is a recipient of awards from numerous organizations including the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Career Bridges Schuyler Foundation, Sylva Gelber Foundation, Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation, Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the George London Foundation.
In 2022, Gabrielian was a finalist at the Belvedere Competition in Latvia as well as a National Semi-Finalist of the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. He is also a recipient of the inaugural 2019 Gerda Lissner IVC Award and was a Grand Finalist in the 2018 COC Ensemble competition.