Layna Chianakas

Stage Director, Voice Teacher and Mezzo-Soprano, Layna Chianakas has been hailed for her “vocal talents which are matched by her poignancy as an actress” (Des Moines Register) in her betrayal of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. She has portrayed over 50 leading opera roles across the United States, including over 80 performances of Carmen. She was heard as The Secretary in Menotti’s The Consul with Dayton Opera and sang the role of Mme. Larina in Eugene Onegin with Intermountain Opera in Bozeman, MT and Filiipyevna in Eugene Onegin with Livermore Valley Opera. Most recently she sang the role of Emilia in Livermore Valley Opera’s production of Otello.

Her stage directing credits include, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Cavalli’s L’Ormindo, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, the National Opera Association’s award-winning Postcard from Morocco by Argento, Ravel’s The Bewitched Child/L’enfant et les Sortilèges, Strauss’ Die Fledermaus/The Revenge of the Bat, and a fully-staged and conceptualized Mendelssohn’s Elijah, among others, for the San José State Opera Theater. For Opera San José, she directed La Voix humaine, Hansel & Gretel, Carmen and Il barbiere di Siviglia. As the Stage Director for Vivace Youth Chorus’ Summer Youth Opera, she has staged the West Coast premiere of Rachel J. Peter’s Rootabaga Country, and productions of Menotti’s Chip and His Dog and Krasa’s Brundibar. She directed Ben Moore’s Odyssey for Opera Santa Barbara’s Youth Summer Opera Program, Verdi’s Nabucco for West Bay Opera, and a double-bill of Zemlinsky’s Eine florentinische Tragödie and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi for Livermore Valley Opera, which won the 2021 American Prize in Opera Performance. Most recently, she directed a double bill of Falla’s El amor brujo and Puccini’s Il Tabarro, and Tosca for Opera Santa Barbara, Ching’s Speed Dating, Tonight! (Opera Santa Barbara’s Chrisman Studio Artists), Otello on a week’s notice, for Livermore Valley Opera, and Madama Butterfly for the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra with Yulan Piao in the title role. This spring finds Ms. Chianakas returning to Opera Santa Barbara to direct The Light in the Piazza for the Chrisman Studio Artists and she will direct La Bohème for the Santa Cruz Opera Project. She was the Area Coordinator for the Vocal Department and Director of Opera Theatre at San Jose State University for ten years, and was also the Artistic Director of the Assyrian Arts Institute for two years, where her duties included contract negotiation, artist booking and scheduling, and venue acquisition.

A sought-after master clinician, Ms. Chianakas holds a master’s degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Illinois, a Performance Certificate from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and served as an Artistic Ambassador of the United States to Central and South America. She runs a private voice studio in her San Jose home, where she teaches students ages 8-80.