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), a Classical Voice award-winning 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. She returned to Opera Santa Barbara to direct The Light in the Piazza for the Chrisman Studio Artists and she directed Tosca for Amarillo Opera and Carmen for Indianapolis Opera. Upcoming engagements include Cavalleria Rusticana for Opera Santa Barbara, Cosí fan tutte for Portland State University Opera Theatre, and La fanciulla del West for Livermore Valley Opera in Spring 2027.
As founder of the Chianakas Studio, a voice studio which boasts a roster of 40 voice students ages 12-62, she loves working with people of all vocal abilities, styles, and goals. Ranging from Classical to Contemporary and Mariachi to Musical Theatre, “Prof C” is an educator at heart who excels in helping each student find their own unique sound. Her students have been heard in the annual Rita Moreno awards, SF Jazz, Monterey Jazz Festival, Boston Conservatory Berklee Aspire Program, Starting Arts, San Jose Children’s Musical Theatre, and as soloists with numerous opera companies and symphony orchestras throughout the United States. Most recently, she has joined the voice faculty at Santa Clara University as an adjunct professor, and is a contributing journalist to San Francisco Classical Voice, an online publication that reports dance, instrumental, and vocal events throughout the Bay Area.
She lives in San Jose, CA with her husband, 8 chickens and a life rich in her two grown children, travel, and dear friends.
