About

Venezuelan-born Armenian conductor, Lucik Aprahamian is equally at home in front of an orchestra, vocal ensemble, and the opera stage. Based in Dallas, she has roots in the San Francisco Bay Area and Arizona. With an extensive background in vocal music, she has worked with ensembles of all ages and skill levels. Currently, she is the Director of Choral Activities at Greenhill School in Dallas. During her time in the Bay Area, she was the Artistic Director of Resound Ensemble, a semi-professional mixed choir of 60 singers; a returning guest and assistant conductor at Opera Parallèle; on faculty at the SF Girls Chorus as Level III Director; master teacher for Music at Kohl Mansion’s education program; and Music Director at First Lutheran Church of Palo Alto. During her time in Arizona, she emerged most notably as a leader in the arts community through her work with the Phoenix Women’s Chorus. In her five seasons as artistic director, Aprahamian’s vision for the choir centered on collaboration, as well as leadership in the community with a strong commitment to social justice.

An avid exponent of new music, Aprahamian has commissioned and premiered works for a variety of performing forces. Premieres include composer Christopher Pratorius’ Xochitl and the Flowers, and Marcus Shelby’s Harriet’s Spirit, both commissioned by Opera Parallèle for their Hands-on Opera program; Sheli Nan’s oratorio, Last Stop Cafe; Andrew Pascoe’s opera, God: The Opera; the U.S. premiere of the Costa Rican zarzuela, Toyupán; Hillary Connover’s The Six Swans; and David Evan Jones’s chamber opera, The Rehearsal; Commissions include Anne Hege’s To Those Born Later for Resound Ensemble; Christopher Pratorius’ Variations on a Theme of Lou Harrison commissioned for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Youth Orchestra, as well as his Cántigas de Mi Amigo Martín for the Women’s Chorus at The University of California at Santa Cruz. She worked to expand the choral repertoire and commissioned several works for the Phoenix Women’s Chorus, including L. Peter Deutsch’s Where Everything is Music; Deborah Dougherty’s Prayer of Music; and Dante De Silva’s A Rejuvenated Heart, which was featured at the 2012 GALA Festival in Denver.

Appearances with orchestral groups includes resident guest conductor with the Scottsdale Arts Orchestra in Arizona, as well as the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony in California. Aprahamian was the director of the youth orchestra and student staff program for three seasons at the internationally renowned Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. As a collaborator on stage, she has worked for many years with renowned musicians including organist Jonathan Gregoire; concertmaster of the Phoenix Symphony, Steven Moeckel; Arizona State University professor and flutist Elizabeth Buck; the Mana Saxophone Quartet; and saxophonist Michael Hernandez. Aprahamian collaborated as chorus master for the Lou Harrison centennial concert of La Koro Sutro presented by Other Minds Music Festival in 2017. She has had the fortunate opportunity to work with artist of various media and has most recently collaborated with painter Peggy Gyulai who has live painted at Resound Ensemble concerts. Aprahamian also commissioned a work from poet Connie Post as a commentary on Giya Kancheli’s choral work, Amao Omi.

She has been invited to prestigious conducting programs including the Sarteano Festival in Italy, where she worked with Simon Carrington, Bronislawa Falinska, and Brian O’Connell; Sherbrooke Summer Music Festival for two seasons where worked with Nicole Paiement; and as an auditor for the Cabrillo Festival’s Conductors’ Workshop led by Marin Alsop in 2017. In addition she was selected as an adjudicator for the Dallas Women’s Conducting Institute in 2017.

Aprahamian’s passion for opera has led her to work both on the podium and behind the scenes. Aside from her work with Opera Parallèle, she has worked with various opera companies, including Mendocino Music Festival where she conducted Il Matrimonio Segreto last summer. In addition, she was the co-artistic director of Southern Arizona Opera. She has worked as assistant conductor and chorus-master for various professional opera companies, including Bayshore Lyric Opera; the Opera Theatre Program at the University of California at Santa Cruz for over a decade on operas such as Don Giovanni, Street Scene, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Medium, Gianni Schicchi, L’Elisir d’amore, Carmen, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and for the University of Arizona Opera Theatre and Opera Theatre Scenes. She was the chorus-master of the San Francisco Girls Chorus for the San Francisco Opera production of Carmen in 2016.

Aprahamian has held various faculty positions in California and Arizona including at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Hartnell College, Arizona Academy for Arts and Academics, and BASIS Phoenix. She received her bachelor’s degree in fortepiano performance practice and master’s degree in conducting from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and her doctorate in conducting from the University of Arizona. She has studied conducting with Nicole Paiement, Bruce Chamberlain, Elizabeth Schauer, Thomas Cockrell, and Charles Bontrager, and voice and theatre production with Brian Staufenbiel.