Creative and Cultural Director | Children’s Opera Premiere of Nightingale of a Thousands Songs
Canadian Children’s Opera Company | Toronto, Canada
February - June 2023
Nightingale of a Thousand Songs was the mainstage annual production and world premiere of a new Armenian-Canadian opera created by Juno Award–winning composer Serouj Kradjian and Dora Award–winning librettist Marjorie Chan. Adapted from the traditional folktale known in Armenian as Hazaran Blbul, the opera was performed in English and Armenian by a cast of 70 youth aged 7 to 18.
The design challenge was to create a central key visual that dynamically captured the narrative while reflecting the vibrant, playful palette of the set and costume design. This project celebrated Armenian cultural heritage through custom illustration, engaging diverse audiences across multi-channel campaign touch points.
Press: Toronto Hye
Information: Canadian Children’s Opera Company
Collaboration Components
—Theme & Visual narrative conceptualization for opera premiere collaborating on designing costume elements, curating a visual language for the set and writing Armenian language translation for lyrics, along with writing cultural sections for the programme highlighting cultural instruments and heritage references in the opera
—Conceptualization and creation of interactive educational curriculum lessons for visiting school groups, private auction fine art painting for fundraising campaign of the opera company
—Social media campaign promotions including captions, animation creation, illustrations for posts and artistic process videos on the opera work highlighting the behind-the-scenes experience of the premiere
Visual elements of the opera included creating a central image for the opera used in marketing, animations created for Instagram Reels of cultural instruments, an illustrative version of the icon in motion for promotion, and a set of Armenian trchnakir bird-lettering creations for costumes.