Together with the surprising debut of Australia in the Eurovision 2015, we are thus having two artists coming from that continent. Whilst Guy Sebastian will be representing Australia, Mary-Jean O’Doherty Vasmatzian is the fifth member of the Eurovision supergroup Genealogy waving the flag for Armenia.
Mary-Jean O’Doherty’s stunning and crystal clear voice of coloratura soprano filled many famous Opera Houses. Being an Australian-Armenian opera singer Mary-Jean holds citizenships of Australia, United States of America and Greece. She is currently residing in Wales.
Mary-Jean is one of the students of a well-known opera singer Arax Mansourian, who nominated Mary-Jean. In an interview with Hayern Aysor Arax mentioned:
“In 2006, Mary-Jean’s mother called me and told me about her girl who was a student at the University of Carolina at the time. Mary-Jean’s mother also said her daughter really wanted me to be her teacher. I agreed, and Mary-Jean came to Australia. I was very surprised to see that she was very talented and really wanted to sing. We would rehearse two or three times a week. Two years later, in 2008, she won a scholarship and went to study in England. At the Cardiff International Academy, she was a student of Dennis O’Neil, with whom I have sung. We continue to collaborate via Skype. I believe I will feel proud in Armenia as she represents our country at the Eurovision Song Contest”.
After having visited the museum of a famous Armenian composer, singer, musicologist and priest Komitas in Armenia whose song “Kele-Kele” was sung by Mary-Jean, she thanked Arax by saying the following:
“When I got to know Komitas today and saw his manuscripts and musical notes, I realized his greatness and the depth of his music. I feel more than happy to have been able to turn my dream into a reality and be in Armenia. Thank you for turning my dream into a reality”.
Mary-Jean won the ABC Symphony Australia Young Vocalist Award in 2007. In 2008 Mary-Jean O’Doherty was the first recipient of the Australian International Opera Award to study at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice, directed by the international tenor Dennis O’Neill.
Your can enjoy her performance below:
As announced weeks ago, Armenia will be represented by Genealogy. The group comprises young performers of Armenian origin from Europe, Asia, America, Africa, Australia and,of course, a singer from Armenia. Besides Mary-Jane, French singer Essai Altounian and Tamar Kaprelian from the USA, Vahe Tilbian from Ethiopia and Stephanie Topalian from Japan will perform as members of the group. The singer from motherland Armenia is yet to be announced with rumours spreading around Inga Arshakyan, who represented Armenia together with her sister Anush in 2009, placing 10th in the Grand Final in Moscow.
Stay tuned to EscXtra.com to get to know more about Genealogy updates.
