Syona Ayyankeril, soprano

Syona has been a regular performer at Lamplighters Music Theatre, having recently starred as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance (2024), Aline in The Sorcerer (2025), and Josephine in HMS Pinafore (2025).

Syona has also performed with Pocket Opera and Cinnabar Theater.

(photo from the lobby of Lamplighters’ 2024 Pirates of Penzance with Eduardo Gonzalez Maldonado as the Pirate King)

Syona completed an MM and PSC in voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Catherine Cook.

Her roles at SFCM included Cunegonde in Candide, La Fée in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Rona Lisa Peretti in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Phoebe D’ysquith in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. She has also performed in both the Graduate Opera Workshop and Musical Theatre showcases.

Syona holds a professional certificate in Opera Direction from Ithaca College, where she studied under Chuck Hudson.

During her studies at SFCM she has directed for the Graduate Opera Workshop ensemble and worked as an assistant director and assistant stage manager for the Opera and Musical Theatre Department.

Syona graduated from Ithaca College in 2021 with a B.M. in Voice with an Outside Field in Theatre.

At IC, she studied voice with Deborah Montgomery-Cove and performed the roles of Monica in The Medium, Second Woman in Dido and Aeneas, and she covered the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute.

Her theatre coursework included acting, directing, dance, production, and theatre history.

After graduating from Ithaca College, Syona was an Apprentice Artist with Opera Ithaca from 2021-2023.

Her work included youth outreach, concert performances, workshopping new opera, and singing in the choruses of Orpheus in the Underworld, Le nozze di Figaro, and Highway 1, USA.

(photo taken from Opera Ithaca’s Orpheus in the Underworld, 2023)