A first-year Butler Studio artist from Tbilisi, Georgian-Armenian mezzo-soprano Ani Kushyan performs the roles of Flower Maiden/2nd Esquire in Parsifal and Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music during HGO’s 2023-24 season. Kushyan was a finalist in HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. She was a member of the young artists program at Armenian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet from 2021-23, making her debut with the company as Third Girl in Anoush by Armenian composer Armen Tigranyan. Other roles include Marta in Iolanta, Lyubasha in The Tsar’s Bride, and Anoush’s mother in Anoush. As an active concert performer, she has appeared in Germany, Latvia, Sweden, Estonia, Georgia, and Armenia. She was named first prize winner in the 2022 Premiere Opera Foundation Vocal Competition, the audience prize winner at the SOI Fiorenza Cedolins competition in Italy, first prize winner in the 2021 Armenian Romanciade, and winner of a special prize at the Ottavio Ziino International Singing Competition in Rome. Kushyan received her bachelor’s degree from the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory and her master’s degree from the Tbilisi State Conservatory in Georgia. She continued her studies at the Riga Jāzepa Vītola Latvian Music Academy and the Lübeck Academy of Music in Germany.