Born
in Istanbul, Republic of Turkey, to Armenian parents who settled in British
Columbia in 1979, Aline Kutan has studied music at both the University
of British Columbia, where she majored in Opera at the Faculty of Music,
and at Université Laval in Québec City where she studied
under Louise André. After winning, in 1995, the New York Metropolitan
Opera National Council Auditions, she made an impressive U.S. debut in
October 1996 with the Arizona Opera, singing, as viewed here, the title
role in Lakmé. A coloratura soprano, Ms.Kutan has been heard at
New York's Lincoln Centre as Sylvie in Gounod’s La Colombe. She has toured
both Spain and France and has sung in over 600 performances of Andrew Lloyd
Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera while touring Canada. Today she lives
in Montreal where she performs, among others, with the Montreal Symphony
Orchestra. The winner of many awards, Aline Kutan, whose “shining new voice”
is as well known abroad as it is in Canada, has a bright international
future. [Photo, courtesy Arizona Opera]