The Board of Directors of Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara, Inc. (CAMA)—now in its 108th concert season in 2026/2027—has elected acclaimed soprano and educator Isabel Bayrakdarian and distinguished theoretical physicist Dr. Eric D’Hoker to its Board of Directors. Both elections are effective as of July 6, 2026.
Isabel Bayrakdarian has earned international recognition on opera and concert stages. In 1997, the same year she graduated cum laude from the University of Toronto with a degree in biomedical engineering, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She received first prize in the distinguished Operalia Competition in 2000 and has since appeared with many of the world’s foremost opera companies and festivals, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Salzburg Festival, London’s Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Paris Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Los Angeles Opera, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, and Florence’s Maggio Musicale.
A four-time consecutive Juno Award winner, Ms. Bayrakdarian is also the featured vocalist on the Grammy® Award-winning soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Her work encompasses opera, orchestral performance, chamber music, recordings, film, and multimedia concert experiences. She has received numerous international honors, including the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee Medals, the Republic of Armenia’s Komitas Medal, and the Movses Khorenatsi Medal, the Republic of Armenia’s highest cultural distinction.
Ms. Bayrakdarian is Professor of Voice, Director of Opera Theatre, and Head of the Voice Area in the Department of Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she also leads opera outreach initiatives and mentors emerging singers. She holds an honorary doctorate from Wilfrid Laurier University and an honorary fellowship from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Santa Barbara audiences will also recognize her from her 2018, CAMA Masterseries appearance at the Lobero Theatre with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Ms. Bayrakdarian previously served on CAMA’s Board of Directors from 2018 to 2023.
Eric D’Hoker grew up in Belgium, graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris, and earned his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University. A professor of theoretical and mathematical physics at the University of California, Los Angeles for more than 38 years, he is now professor emeritus. His research has focused on quantum field theory and string theory, with applications to particle physics, condensed-matter physics, and mathematics.
Throughout his academic career, Dr. D’Hoker has held visiting professorships and appointments at Kyoto University, CERN in Geneva, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and other institutions. He also served as a trustee and president of the Aspen Center for Physics in Colorado and continues to hold an honorary trusteeship there.
In 1996, Dr. D’Hoker married Jody Enders—an author, translator, and UCSB faculty member in the field of French medieval theater—atop Aspen Mountain. Beyond science and classical music, his passions include painting, cycling, and travel; he was once an avid windsurfer and mountaineer. More detailed information about Dr. D’Hoker is available on his UCLA faculty webpage: https://www.pa.ucla.edu/faculty-websites/dhoker.html.
CAMA, Santa Barbara’s oldest arts organization, brings the finest classical musicians from around the globe to Santa Barbara’s Granada Theatre and Lobero Theatre. For more information about CAMA, please visit www.camasb.org.
