Susanna Chakhoian, Ukrainian lirico-coloratura soprano with Armenian roots grew up in Odessa. She started her musical education at the age of five, studying piano at the famous Stoliarsky School. After finishing school she enrolled at the piano department of the Odessa State Music Academy where she studied with the highly esteemed Professor Ludmila Ginzburg. The young pianist was offered post-graduate education scholarships in Western Europe. She decided, however, to enter a singing career.
Susanna started to study singing with the legendary opera singer Eugenia Miroshnichenko at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv. In 1999 still being a student the young singer was invited for Juliette's role in a new production of Gounod's "Romeo and Juliette" at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv. Since then she has belonged to the ensemble as a preeminent soloist. In 2009 President Viktor Yushchenko awarded her the title "Honored Artist of Ukraine". For many years she has performed at all opera houses of Ukraine, at the Opera of Tatarstan in Kazan, and has been on numerous opera tours to, among others, France, the Netherlands, Belgiumand Italy.
Besides Juliette, her operatic repertoire comprises among others, Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Leila in Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Pamina in Mozart's Zauberflöte, Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème, Olympia in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Serpina in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona. In the season 2021/2022 Susanna Chakhoian was heard at the National Opera of Ukraine as Gilda, Rosina, Olympia, Serpina, and Musetta. Since January 2023 she is guest soloist of National Opera of Ukraine.
Participating in several international singing competitions she won prizes in Budapest, 2002 (Second Prize), at Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna, 2004 (Audience Prize and Special Prize for the best stage personality), in Alcamo, Sicilia, 2008 (Second Prize and Best Verdi interpretation).
Apart from opera, Susanna Chakhoian devotes an important part of her activities to giving solo recitals, also performing operetta, sacred and contemporary music, classical and folk songs as well as chamber repertoire. She is a regular guest at the National Philharmonic, National Radio and TV Broadcast House, where she made a series of recordings as well. In concert the artist appeared in K. Orff's Carmina Burana, G. Mahler's 8th Symphony, J. Haydn's Die Schӧpfung, Vier Letzte Lieder by R. Strauss, Les Illuminations by B. Britten, to name a few. In 2015 she was invited by the President of Ukraine to perform the soprano part in the internationally broadcasted Mozart Requiem on occasion of the Maidan Memorial and to appear as prime singer in the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide Concert.
In 2008 Susanna Chakhoian initiated and managed the international project “Austria-Ukraine without Frontiers” in Kyiv. Under this heading she performed several recitals at concert halls in Kyiv and Vienna together with Clemens Unterreiner, Jörg Schneider, Sebastian Reinthaller, Mehrzad Montazeri and others. She was also a frequent guest in festivals, e.g. with Oksana Lyniv in LvivMozArt and Graz/Austria. Over the years she has established herself as a guest star in numerous radio and TV productions.
Beyond singing, the artist is passing on her professional experience to a growing number of students as associate professor at the Glière Music Academy in Kyiv. In March 2022, with a view to the Russian war in Ukraine, she movedwith her family to Vienna. Since then she has performed in a series of charity concerts in Bern, Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, Linz and Salzburg.
Vienna - March 2023