Barrie Examiner (Ontario)
September 8, 2007 Saturday
Maestro drops baton for mic
by Susan Doolan
The founder of Opera Belcanto sets aside his baton this month to take
to the stage and sing.
It’s the first time David Varjabed will perform in Barrie. Slated to
be a fundraiser for the local opera company, Varjabed is also
featuring a number of solists.
"As a singer, you always like singing and love to perform. Plus,
everybody knows me, I’m an opera singer. They don’t leave me alone,"
he said. "So I decided to do it."
Many who knew of Varjabed’s reputation as an internationally known
singer of classical music and opera had never heard the baritone
sing, because he cut back on performing after his mother died several
years ago.
Instead, he continued to teach. Two years ago, encouraged by the
communities in south Simcoe, started an opera company.
Since then, Opera Belcanto has staged seven concerts showcasing
popular songs from famous operas. Four of those concerts were held in
Barrie and a couple more are slated for the 2007-08 season.
It is opera singer, conductor and voice teacher Varjabed who has
attracted these talented singers to the professional-level,
non-profit opera company.
Many are also his students, up-and-coming opera stars including
university music students and graduates. Five of these students,
including 12-year-old Russian-born soprano Ekaterina Chelekova, will
be featured at a concert at the end of September.
The concert is a fundraiser for the opera company.
All of the singers, whether they are his students, part of Opera
Belcanto’s chorus or soloists with the company, are trained in the
Bel Canto technique. It’s an Italian voice training style of
breathing and projection that is unique to Italy, and the reason so
many of that country’s opera singers have become so famous. Varjabed
calls it a science that is highly individual to each singer.
Translated, bel canto means "beautiful singing."
Varjabed has sung professionally across the globe for three decades.
Born in Armenia, he began singing at four years old in boys’ choirs,
and at age nine, conducted an 85-member church choir.
He debuted in La Traviata in 1971, while still at school, studying
for his masters in opera performance and voice pedagogy at the
Komitas National Conservatory in Yerevan, Armenia.
He graduated with the highest honours and won a competition as the
"most promising young artist in Armenia."
Following a successful stint with the Armenian National Opera
Company, Varjabed came to Canada in 1974, at age 20, where he was
immediately accepted into the Canadian Opera Company with a five-year
contract. Once established here, he brought his wife and baby
daughter to Canada.
Since then, he’s toured Europe, the United States, the former USSR
and the Middle East.
While Varjabed was encouraged by the communities of Beeton (where the
opera company rehearses), Alliston and New Tecumseth to start Opera
Belcanto, he had additional reasons for taking it on.
He felt there was a lot of talented singers in the area that had no
place to perform and limited prospects to grow a professional career.
He said the opera company serves as a training ground and launching
pad for singers he maintains are better than the Canadian Opera
Company.
Varjabed also loves teaching and has continued to take on students
throughout his own professional career.
"I love it," he said. "I’ve seen many young people desire to be good
singers, and to bring them to a professional level is very beautiful.
It’s a duty."
Varjabed performs along with five soloists on Saturday, Sept. 29 at
First Christian Reformed Church at 33 Shirley Ave., in Barrie, 7:30
p.m.
Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for seniors, $20 for students under
the age of 18, available by calling 435-3730.