After last year’s successful Reclaim Conference, His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian asked for an annual event that can showcase and accent the spiritual dimension of our lives as Christians. Under his capable leadership, Reclaim 2018 is scheduled to take place, March 2, 3, 4 at the Western Diocese headquarters and St. Leon (Srbots Ghevontyants) Cathedral complex.

“Exploring and Celebrating the Creative Spirit” is the theme of this year’s conference. True to its name, the Conference promises to focus on the creative energy, with speakers, a morning hike, spiritual dance, sacred supper, virtual reality room, all brought together with confessions, prayers and meditations. This conference is aimed at people of all ages, all backgrounds, the churched and the unchurched, the seeker and the searcher and just about anyone who is looking for spiritual enrichment and growth.

“With this conference we look at the God-given ability to create, to leave our mark on the world in a positive and productive manner, says event organizer Fr. Vazken Movsesian. “All too often we measure success by what’s in our pocket, rather than what is in our heart. We have examples all around us – people who have excelled and achieved without compromising the spiritual values of love and compassion. The Armenian Apostolic Church, with its time-proven tradition of faith in Jesus Christ, is there to celebrate and help others explore the creative spirit.”

Given the rapid changes in the world, the Armenian Apostolic Church offers a time-proven (2,000 years) tradition of faith in Jesus Christ,” says “Herein we find the tools to take on the challenges of the day, to find Embracing that faith is the challenge of the day. This Conference provides the necessary spiritual tools to move from the secular to the sacred; to find comfort, strength and courage to live the Christian life.”

This conference is not to be missed. The cost for three-days is $125, which includes admission to all events, meals and conference materials. Scholarships and grants are available on line and from your local parish. The conference begins Friday evening with a gathering and prayer service. More information, scholarship application and registration visit www.Embracing-Faith.com or write to info@embracing-faith.com. #ReclaimAC2018

Join us on Facebook (Embracing our Faith in a Changing World) for daily updates and to the meet the various presenters.

Today we feature two of the speakers, Isabel Bayrakdarian and Michael Goorjian.

Isabel Bayrakdarian - Opera Singer, UCSB Professor of Music, Biomedical Engineer

It’s not every prima donna who can boast a degree in biomedical engineering, but then, Isabel Bayrakdarian isn’t your average prima donna. In a career still in its second decade, an eagerly anticipated visitor to opera houses and concert halls the world over, she’s become as celebrated for her beauty, presence, and style as for a strikingly multihued voice that’s wholly in sync with the rest of her.

A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions—the same year she graduated from the University of Toronto cum laude with a Biomedical Engineering Degree—Ms. Bayrakdarian thereafter found her career taking rapid wing. She scored a notable success in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s world premiere production of William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge; the following year, she walked away from Plácido Domingo’s prestigious Operalia competition with first prize. More debuts followed, including her San Francisco Opera debut, as Valencienne in The Merry Widow, and her Metropolitan Opera debut, in the New York premiere of Bolcom’s opera; a season later, she won plaudits as Teresa in the Met premiere of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. Mozart became a specialty: Zerlina in Don Giovanni (New York, Houston, Salzburg), Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro (Los Angeles, London), and Pamina in The Magic Flute (New York, Toronto). Her roles at Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company range from Gluck’s Euridice to Debussy’s Mélisande to Poulenc’s Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites; and away from Canada, she has shone as Monteverdi’s Poppea in Barcelona, Handel’s Romilda (Serse) in Dresden, and Janáček’s Vixen in New York, Florence, and the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan.

But opera is only one page of the Bayrakdarian résumé. An ever-active concertizer, she’s appeared with the premier orchestras of New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, RAI Torino, Paris, London, Vienna, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal under the baton of such eminent conductors as Seiji Ozawa, James Conlon, David Zinman, Michael Tilson Thomas, Alan Gilbert, Nicholas McGegan, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons, Leonard Slatkin, James Levine, Anne Manson, Bramwell Tovey, Peter Oundjian and Richard Bradshaw.

Her versatility is also reflected in being the featured vocalist on the Grammy-award winning soundtrack of the blockbuster film The Two Towers from The Lord of The Rings trilogy and on the soundtrack of Atom Egoyan's Ararat. A trance music collaboration with the electronica band Delerium garnered yet another Grammy nomination. She sings on the BBC-produced short film HOLOCAUST - A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz, as well as her Gemini-nominated film Long Journey Home, documenting her first visit to her ancestral homeland Armenia.

Bayrakdarian is the winner of four consecutive Juno Awards for Best Classical Album. Her recordings with orchestra include Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 with John Axelrod conducting the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, released on the Sony Classical label, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, with Michael Tilson-Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony, and Respighi’s “Il Tramonto” with Orchestre Symphonique de Laval.

She is also the recipient of many awards, including the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition Award, Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee and the Diamond Jubilee Medals, the Arbor Award from the University of Toronto, the George London Foundation Award, Canada Council’s Virginia Parker Prize, and the Republic Of Armenia "Komitas Medal", bestowed upon by the Minister of Diaspora, Dr. Hranush Hakobian. Most recently, she was awarded the “Movses Khorenatsi” medal - the Republic of Armenia’s highest cultural award - from the President of Armenia in celebration of Armenia's Independence, on September 21 2017.

She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Canada's Wilfrid Laurier University, and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Ms Bayrakdarian is on the Voice Faculty at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB).
Excerpted from www.Bayrakdarian.com

MICHAEL GOORJIAN - Actor, Director, Writer

Get to know our Speaker. 
Reclaim 2018 is about the CREATIVE SPIRIT. We have asked a select group of individuals that will share the joy and inspiration of their creativity. Each day on this post we will feature one of the many talents who will be presenting at the Reclaim 2018 conference at the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church. Register now at: www.embracing-faith.com

Michael A. Goorjian is an American actor, filmmaker, and writer. Michael won the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the television movie David’s Mother with Kirstie Alley. He is also well known for his role as Justin, Neve Campbell’s love interest, on the Golden Globe winning series Party of Five, as well as Heroin Bob in the film SLC Punk. He recently starred alongside Robert De Niro in HBO’s Wizard of Lies. As a director, Michael achieved widespread recognition for his first major independent film, Illusion, a film he wrote, directed, and starred in alongside Hollywood-legend Kirk Douglas. As a writer, he has work on dozens of screenplays, and his debut novel What Lies Beyond the Star was recently released worldwide.

ACTING
Michael’s acting career began at the age of 14 when he audition for a local theatre company thinking it was a “cool way” to skip class. After landing the lead in A “not-so-cool” play called Computer Crazy, Michael soon learned that the rest of the cast were all senior citizens and that he would have to perform the play at his own junior high. Despite this rather humiliating experience, Michael stuck with acting and after four intense years studying theatre at Bishop O’Dowd High School, headed south to study at UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. Michael’s first big Hollywood break came as a dancer in 1992 when he was cast as Skittery in the Disney film, Newsies, starring Christian Bale and Robert Duvall.

ModiglianiWhat followed was starring roles in numerous films including Chaplin with Robert Downey Jr., Forever Young with Mel Gibson, Oscar nominated Leaving Las Vegas, Hard Rain with Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater, SLC Punk, The Invisibles with Portia DeRossi , Broken with Heather Graham, and Conversations with God.

Michael has also guest starred in countless television series including Lucifer, Code Black, Covert Affairs, Lie to Me, House, Alias, Monk, CSI, Without a Trace as well as regular roles on Life Goes On as Ray Nelson and Party of Five as Justin Thompson. Never straying far from the stage, Michael is a founding member of the Los Angeles based theater group, Buffalo Nights and starred in Dennis McIntyre’s powerful drama, Modigliani, which won him a L.A. Weekly Theater Award nomination for Best Lead Actor. With the ‘Nights’, Michael also received tremendous critical acclaim for playing title roles in both productions of The Apollo of Bellac by Jean Giraudoux and J.B. by Archibald MacLeish. Michael won an LA Critics Choice and a Garland Backstage West award for his original choreography for the L.A. production of the musical Reefer Madness.

After a short hiatus from Acting, Michael can soon be seen opposite Robert Deniro in HBO’s Wizard of Lies. Michael will also be returning to the stage in Berkeley Repertory Theater’s World premiere of Imaginary Comforts by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket)

DIRECTING
About Directing picWith a passion to create thought-provoking films, Michael made his first real foray into directing with the mock-documentary Oakland Underground, a comedy about an underground occult music scene in Oakland, California. From there, Michael made Illusion with Kirk Douglas, which was released theatrically in 2006 after racking up over a dozen festival awards, including Best Screenplay at The Hamptons International Film Festival, Best Feature at the Lake Tahoe International Film Festival and The Audience Award at the Sonoma International Film Festival. With Illusion Michael was critically lauded for his ability to blend great filmmaking with philosophical depth.

Soon after Illusion, Michael began collaborating with the publishing company Hay House to produce and direct a number of films including the documentary You Can Heal Your Life, starring internationally renowned metaphysical author and teacher, Louise L. Hay and The Shift, starring internationally best-selling author Dr. Wayne Dyer, along with Michael Deluise and Portia de Rossi. His most recent work with Hay House is an original film anthology called Tales of Everyday Magic, which explores meaningful philosophical ideas through intimate and intense, character-driven stories. Additional directing credits include the short film Players’ Club which swept the 2006 Elevate Film Festival in Los Angeles, including Best Director, and The War Prayer, an adaptation of Mark Twain’s short story by the same title starring Jeremy Sisto. From time to time, Michael moonlights as a director at a circus/cabaret show in Eastern Europe called Palazzo.

WRITING
Michael collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola for several years developing, writing and rewriting scripts for the iconic director’s company, American Zoetrope. Michael has also authored the screenplays for nearly all of his own films, including Oakland Underground, Illusion, Tales of Everyday Magic. He wrote the original screenplay for The Mesmerist, starring Neil Patrick Harris, based on the short story, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, by Edgar Allan Poe. As a novelist, his debut work, What Lies Beyond the Star is the first part of a trilogy he was commissioned to write for Hay House Publishing. The second book in the series, Beyond the Fractured Sky is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2018.
(excerpted from http://www.michaelagoorjian.com

Meet them both at Reclaim 2018