Armenian-American soprano, Anush Avetisyan has “proved to be a gifted singer and interpreter beyond her years” (German World Magazine). Ms. Avetisyan along with Livermore Valley Opera is a recipient of the American Prize in Opera for her 2021 performance of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi as well as Bianca in Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy. She was a recent two time fellow at the Music Academy of the West and was awarded a Fast Pitch Awardee for her work in promoting Armenian classical music in the classical canon. Ms. Avetisyan is one of the first cohorts of fellows with the 2018-19 Turn the spotlight organization, whose mission it is to empower leaders on stage and behind the scenes to create a more equitable future for the arts.

Ms. Avetisyan is a graduate from Yale School of Music where she performed as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and Gretel (Hänsel and Gretel) as well as performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony twice with the Waterbury Symphony and Hartford Symphony. As a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Ms. Avetisyan was awarded a Richard Gaddes Career Award given to Opera Theatre’s most exceptional early-career artists to support continued professional and artistic growth.

A graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts, Ms. Avetisyan sang the roles of Violetta (La traviata), Musetta and Mimì (La bohème), Despina (Così fan tutte), Elvira (L’Italiana in Algieri), and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni). Ms. Avetisyan attended Oberlin in Italy for two years singing in Teatro Signorelli the roles of Magda (La Rondine) and Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro). As a Wolf Trap Studio Young Artist, she performed as Delia (Il viaggo a Reims). Ms. Avetisyan received her B.A. at UCLA in 2012 with a double major in Vocal Performance and Music Education. She sang the roles of Eurydice (Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld), Poppea (Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea).

Ms. Avetisyan is a 2022 First Prize Winner in the Music International Grand Prix, First Prize winner of the Inaugural Deborah Voigt International Vocal Competition, finalist in the Violetta DuPont Vocal Competition, Second Place in the Mario Lanza Competition, First Place in the New Century Singers Whittier Vocal Scholarship Competition, the First and Founders’ Prize in the Mondavi Center Young Artists Competition, Fourth Place in the Loren L. Zachary Society Competition and First Place in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Competition. She has also received encouragement awards from the Metropolitan Opera and The Giulio Gari Foundation and was a semi-finalist in the Dallas Opera Competition.

She made her professional debut as Micaëla in Carmen with Vero Beach Opera and debuted as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Pittsburg Summer Festival and repeated the role with the Livermore Valley Opera in January 2020. In 2021 she reprised a role that she created, Loelia (The Fall of Atlantis) by David Arkenstone in San Francisco. She has recently made the move to Berlin Germany and looks forward to making her European audition debut this coming season.