Baritone Navasard Hakobyan is a studio member with Houston Grand Opera and won 3rd Prize of the 2023 Operalia World Opera Competition. Current and upcoming season highlights include roles as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Houston Grand Opera, Gregorio in Romeo et Juliet with Dallas Opera, and a house debut with Dresden Semperoper. Previous highlights include role debuts with Yerevan Opera Theater as Silvio in I Pagliacci and as Germone in La traviata. A native of Armenia, Navasard also performed as Antonio in Il viaggio a Reims with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from the vocal studio of Armenian State Song Theater and is currently completing a master’s degree at Yerevan Conservatory. Since 2018, he has also been a soloist of the Young Opera Singers Program of the Yerevan Opera Theater. Navasard won the Music Academy’s 2023 Marilyn Horne Song Competition and was a winner of the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.