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Passionate and exciting, Canadian Soprano Sharon Azrieli Perez has
been hailed as a “mistress of merry inflection and piquant words” by
Andrew Porter of the New Yorker Magazine. She has performed on
leading opera and concert stages throughout Europe, North America
and Asia under the direction of such conductors as Yves Abel, Marco
Armiliato, Maurizio Benini, Boris Brott, Jacques de la Cote,
Jean-Francois Rivest, and the late Richard Bradshaw.
Upcoming engagements include Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des
Carmelites with One World Symphony in New York, a concert
with the musicians of the One World Symphony in Montreal, a recital
at the Red Sea Festival, a recording for the Millken Archives
on the famous Naxos label, an appearance at the Baltimore
opera gala, and the title role in Aida with the New
Jersey Association of Verismo Opera.
Sharon’s 2010-2011 season began with four concerts for the
prestigious Orford Music Festival in Quebec. She also sang a special
concert of “Forbidden Music” for the Brott Music Festival in
Hamilton, Ontario. In September Sharon sang a sold out concert
honouring Zipora Gisser of Montreal. October brought Sharon to the
critically acclaimed Israel Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv, where she
sang a concert of Cantorial Classics orchestrated specially for the
ICO by young Canadian composer Harry Stafylakis. In November, Sharon
returns to Montreal for a concert with the widely popular Festivale
Sepharade de Montreal, and in December she returns to the ICO for
the world premiere performances of works by living Israeli composers
Ofer Ben-Amots and Tzvi Avni. Sharon will be recording this year on
the Naxos Label for the acclaimed Milken Archives of Jewish Music.
In March 2011, Sharon will make her debut with the Baltimore Opera,
singing in their gala.
A consummate concert and recital artist, Sharon has performed on
stages in Europe, North America and Asia. She has performed with the
Haifa and Jerusalem Symphonies, the Tokyo Symphony, the McGill
chamber Orchestra as well as with many other orchestras. Highlights
of her Oratorio concerts have been the Dvorak Stabat Mater with the
Orchestre de L’Université
de Montréal,
under the direction of Jean-Francois Rivest, and the Verdi
Requiem with the New West Symphony under the baton of Boris
Brott.
This
past Spring Sharon sang her first Mahler 2nd
Symphony with the Orchestre de l’Isle under the direction of
Cristian Gort.
In 2008 Sharon sang Liu (Turandot) with the New Israel
Opera, and in 2009 the Mahler 8th Symphony
with the National Orchestra of Canada. In 2010 Sharon sang Mozart’s
extraordinary and rarely performed K.505 Ch’io mi scordi di te
and Knoxville Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber with a
24 piece orchestra under the direction of Shalom Bard. Constantly in
demand to sing for her community and various fund raisers across
Canada, Sharon has added many song cycles by Berlioz, Du Parc, among
others and has discovered and added the anonymous composers of the
genre ‘Ladino music’ to her repertoire.
Sharon began her career at the Canadian Opera Company as Juliette in
Romeo and Juliette in 1992 and sang Mimi in La
Boheme, as well, with the young artists program. She went on
to sing Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with the
Sarasota Opera where she was acclaimed unanimously by Florence
Fisher of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune as “wily yet candid,
flirtatious, practical and utterly charming. And her bell-like
soprano is always exquisitely in tune".
She also garnered
rave reviews as Laurette in Le Docteur Miracle with
L’Opéra Français de New York, and Nedda in Il Pagliacci
with the summer New York Opera Festival.
After the birth of her two sons, Sharon retired briefly from the
operatic
stage and worked full time as a Cantor in New York and
Montreal. In 2005 She returned to her first love, the great operas
of Verdi, under the tutelage of Bill Schuman in New York and
Rosemarie Landry in Montreal. She continues to study with these
wonderful teachers and is looking forward to interpreting roles
which are now much
more demanding vocally, and deeper in terms of
the psychological understanding and expression they require.
Ms. Azriel has
been engaged by: |
