Lyric Soprano Alexandra Kosachukova Babbel, is adjudicating the vocal and choral sections of the Cariboo Festival taking place in Williams Lake this week.
The section started off with the choir adjudications Monday and a choir concert Monday evening at the Evangelical Free Church on Eleventh Avenue.
Being the only American-born member of her family, Babbel has approached her music with a great sense of privilege.
Her German mother and Ukrainian father met and married in a displaced persons’ refugee camp after fleeing the Stalinist terror in Ukraine and later immigrated to the U.S. where Babbel was born.
Babbel’s opera career in Chicago included the title role in the world premiere production of Philip Hagamman’s opera The Aspern Papers and roles with the Lincoln Opera and the Milwaukee Opera Company in Puccini’s La Boheme, performing both the roles of Mimi and Mussetta.
Babbel has enjoyed operatic and concert solo performances in Canada, Germany, England, Switzerland, Holland, Italy and solo concert tours in Russia and Ukraine including guest appearances with members of the Kiev Conservatory of Music, Moscow’s conductor Evgeny Vechenko, and recital performances in association with the Britten-Pears School.
In addition to training with teachers Galina Vesnevskaya and Kathleen Kaun and vocal coaches John Wustman and Joan Dornaman, Babbel sang in Master Class for Maureen Forrester and Elly Ameling.
Babbel holds a BA in Choral Music Education from the University of Michigan, a MA in Opera Performance from the University of Alberta and Post-Masters Certificate of Performance from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. She held the faculty position of Voice Department Head at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois before relocating to Canada.