Described by Opera Now as ‘the future of opera’, British-Armenian soprano Anush Hovhannisyan began her career as a member of the Jette Parker Artists Programme at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She is the winner of First and Public Prizes, Deutsche Grammophon and Royal Danish Opera Special Prizes at the Stella Maris Competition, the winner of the Ernst Haefliger International Swiss Competition and represented Armenia at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2017. In 2020 she was selected by The Times as “The Face to Watch in Opera 2020” and by Der Theaterverlag as one of the outstanding artists of 2020 and was nominated for the International Opera Awards.
Recently she revived her calling card role of Violetta La traviata for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Israeli Opera and Royal Danish Opera. She returned to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Musetta La bohème, and made her role debut as Mimi La bohème at the Welsh National Opera. Recent debuts also include Emma Khovanschina for Opéra National de Paris, Parasha Mavra for Scottish Opera, Tatyana Eugene Onegin for Opera Holland Park, Leonora Oberto for Chelsea Opera Group, Liza Queen of Spades at The Grange Festival.
Anush performed with renowned conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Edward Gardner, Dan Ettinger, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Paolo Carignani, Nicola Luisotti, Daniel Oren, Carlo Rizzi, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Sir Antonio Pappano.
Her recordings and broadcasts include Shostakovich Symphony No. 14 with the Southbank Sinfonia and Emma Khovanschina with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC Radio 3), Decades – A Century of Song, Vols 2 and 4 for Vivat CD, Rimsky-Korsakov Romances for Stone Records (a Sunday Times ‘Album of the Week’), Songs by Scriabin for Decca’s complete piano anthology of his music, BBC Radio 3’s Big Chamber Day and The Royal Ballet’s Woolf Works, on Opus Arte DVD.
A keen advocate and mentor to young opera singers, Anush is the Patron of Opera Caledonia in Scotland, a Board member of the National Student Opera Society UK and the Founder and Artistic Director of the Armenian Opera Workshop.
