The weekend of May 23rd I participated in the Classical Singer Magazine 2015 Classical Singer Competition and Convention in Chicago. I received an invitation to participate after submitting a video entry earlier this year, and was thrilled to be able to compete on a national level with some of the strongest young talent in the industry. The convention consisted of Masterclasses, seminars, and great opportunities for networking. I was pleased to see the faces of colleagues from the Atlanta area in the competition, as well meet lots of young professionals from around the United States. A particular congratulations to Julie Trammel, a Georgia State Alumni and friend, for advancing to the finals in the Musical Theater category. She gave a spectacular performance!
In the preliminary round I sang Bella siccome un angelo by Donizetti and Mab, la reine des mensonges by Gounod. The performance I gave advanced me to the semi finals, making me one of the last 29 set to advance to finals from the hundreds who had auditioned to compete. This was a great honor, and I could not be more proud of my performance. In the semi final round I chose Mab, la reine des mensonges as my selection for entry, and although I did not make the finals, I did receive the Franco- American Vocal Academy’s ‘Excellence in French Repertoire’ Award for the performance. This was a privilege to receive, making the hours of time spent working on the text for my aria worth-while. As a prize they will be sending me several books of vocal repertoire by French composers, including Poulenc, Fauré, Debussy, and more.
Now that I have returned to Atlanta, I am staying continually busy with Harrower Opera Workshop, preparing to perform in Falstaff and Le Nozze di Figaro. I recently participated in a Masterclass with Tomer Zvulun of the Atlanta Opera, in which I performed Mab once again. He had very interesting character building techniques to share, and I know my future performances of this aria will be enhanced by this experience. Below are the dates of performance for the shows, be sure to come out and see them! (All performances will be held in Florence Kopleff Recital Hall in downtown Atlanta)
Falstaff:
Friday, June 12th: 8pm
Saturday, June 13th: 2pm
Scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro:
Sunday, June 14th: 7pm
