Author: nicyaq127

I am ecstatic to announce that I was selected as a winner of the 2015 Georgia District MONC Auditions. I accepted my award along-side Soprano Amanda Opuszynski and Bass- baritone Alan Higgs at the Chaddick Center for the Arts on Saturday, November 21st. (As well as 2 Encouragement Award winners: Bass- baritone Stephen McCluskey and Soprano Esther Tonea) The three of winners will advance to the Southeast Region Finals at 2pm, February 7th in Spivey Hall. We will compete against three other districts for an opportunity to continue on towards semi- finals in New York City later this year. Click here for more information!

I opened my performance in the competition with Largo al factotum from Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini. The judges then requested Each Day I Write You (Charlie’s Aria) from Heggie’s Three Decembers. I was especially excited to have the opportunity to perform the selection from Three Decembers, because I prepared that work in the last few months specifically for this competition.

I received many kind words and congratulations from friends and competitors alike, and also received very constructive feedback from the three judges: Michael Heaston, Melissa Wegner, and Keith A. Wolfe. I am preparing a new aria for the next round of the competition, and will be working diligently to polish that as well as the rest of my repertoire. I am so thankful to have been presented this opportunity, and I hope you will make the time to come out and catch the next round of the competition this coming February. Tickets can be purchased here, be sure to come out and catch my Spivey Hall premiere!

I am so thankful to have been selected for the 2015 Josephine L. LiPuma Scholarship from Casa Italia Italian Heritage Center in Chicago. November 8th I performed at the Gala dinner in acceptance of my award, and had the pleasure of meeting many members of this kind community.

I performed alongside the four other winners, Bethany Brautigam (Soprano), Leigh Folta (Soprano), Michael Colman (Bass- Baritone), and Andrea Baker (Soprano). These four were fantastic performers and were a pleasure to converse with throughout the evening. My selections included ‘Largo al Factotum’ from Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini and ‘O del mio amato ben’ by Stefano Donaudy. I hope to have another chance in the future to perform for Casa Italia, and have unending gratitude to have been a winner of their scholarship program. To learn more about Casa Italia, a link to their website can be found here.

This week I’m headed to Miami for another performance with the CeeGees for the Eurest annual summit. Once I return I’ll be getting geared up for a competition this weekend, so be sure to come out for the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions this coming Saturday morning, November 21st. They will be held at The Galloway School on Wieuca road, and are free and open to the public! My audition time is around 11:30, and this competition will surely offer all the best talent Atlanta has to offer. For more information on the National Council auditions, click here.

This weekend I am in the greater Chicago area performing and enjoying the city. After arriving I had a very successful audition with Opera on the Avalon. (For more info click here.) Tonight I will be performing a recital of songs and arias at the Merion in Evanston. They were kind enough to extend a performance invitation to me this weekend since I was planning to be in the city, following the Opera Idol competition I did with them last year. Local pianist Myron Silberstein will be the pianist for the event, and his full website can be found by clicking here!

Tomorrow evening I will finish the weekend with a concert for the Casa Italia Italian culture center in a gala dinner style setting. My performance is in acceptance of the 40th annual presentation of the Josephine L. LiPuma vocal scholarship, and I will be joined by the 4 other winners for an evening of song. For more information, check out their website here.

With so much great music happening, Chicago is certainly an exciting place to be!

This year I was invited to perform at the Compass Be A Star Night in Orlando, Florida. This was my second year at the conference, and my second time being able to perform at the Hard Rock Live in the Universal Orlando Resort. I sang and accompanied myself by guitar in a rendition of ‘Ring of Fire’ by Johnny Cash.

I was also invited to join the company band this year, the CeeGees. They are a wonderful group of musicians from all divisions of Compass Group. We performed songs from a wide spectrum of artists and genres, but mainly falling within the country rock theme of the conference this year. I will be joining them for another performance this coming month in Miami. Videos of my performance will be released eventually, but in the mean time embedded below is a video of a collaboration between Carey Durham (violin), Erika Ruiz (vocals), and myself (guitar) in Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene.’

I’m headed to Cincinnati tomorrow for an audition with Opera North. Onward and upward!

For those who were not able to make it to my Senior Recital back in March of this year, I now have excerpts of my performance on YouTube as well as on my website. (Click here) Below I’ve embedded one of my favorites from the evening, ‘Graceful consort! At thy side’ from The Creation by Joseph Haydn. I was fortunate enough to be accompanied by a 12 piece orchestral ensemble I gathered for the evening, as well as my good friend Allison Mion, Soprano. To visit her artists page, click here! The hard work of the ensemble really shows in this performance. Thanks to all who helped to make this possible, enjoy!

Tomorrow I’m headed off to Chicago for The Casa Italia Vocal Scholarship competition. For more information on Casa Italia Chicago, click here.

This past week has been an exciting sequence of performance! My premiere of David Brighton’s Quatre chansons de Charles Baudelaire was a smashing success, and I eagerly await the recordings. Meanwhile Atlanta Opera’s La Bohème has received raving reviews across the board. It was so exciting to be part of such an innovative production featuring such talented artists, and I am sad to see the shows run come to an end with today’s final performance at 3pm. Be sure to come see this finale performance today at Cobb energy center if you can!
I also spent an afternoon working with Daniel Solberg of DSol productions (Website here) recording some rep for grad school auditions and competition auditions for the season. I will record more in the coming month, but at this session I did Mab, la reine des mensonges, When the Air Sings of Summer, and the entire Don Quichotte à Dulcinée song set by Ravel. Below I’ve embedded the second song of the set, Chanson épique. All of the new videos can be found on the Audio/Video portion of this website, or by clicking here. Enjoy!

September has been a month of preparation and travel. I have enjoyed having the time to take a look towards options for grad school in the next year, and choosing what summer programs I would like to attend in the 2016 summer season. I’ve spent much time preparing for my performances lined up for October, as well as deciding on repertoire to work on, comparing options for graduate programs, and organizing the logistics of this year’s audition season.

Atlanta Opera’s production of La Bohème is coming into tech week, with opening night being next Saturday evening at 8. The performances will be October 3, 6, 9, and 11, and will all be at the Cobb Energy Center. Its sure to be a great performance, don’t miss it! Tickets can be purchased here.

I will also be performing the newly completed song cycle Quatre Chansons de Charles Baudelaire by local Atlanta composer David Brighton. This set was written for me and the first 3 pieces were premiered in my senior recital. A sound cloud version of the performance is posted below, and David has only improved the set in his finishing of the composition. The performance will be October 4th on the Georgia Perimeter campus at 3pm. A link the the event page can be found here.

I was fortunate enough to be granted an audition to Opera Theater St. Louis in Cincinnati in mid September. I sang Largo al Factotum, and the judges called Lieben, Hassen, Hoffen, Zagen, which is from the production Ariadne auf Naxos, which will be performed in the program this summer. I advanced to final round and sang Mab, la reine des mensonges followed by When the Air Sings of Summer. I feel extremely confident in my performance, and am excited to find out in the coming weeks if I will be offered a position with them for the coming summer season. Click here for more information on Opera Theater of St. Louis.

The following week I flew to Nashville to rehearse for the 2015 Compass Be a Star convention in Orlando. I won this competition last year, and have been invited back for another performance this year. I was also invited to join the company band, the CeeGees, as we perform covers from all over the musical realm to match this year’s theme: Country Rock. I will be traveling to Orlando for this convention and performance at the Hard Rock Live at the end of October. For more information about the Compass group, click here.

This past August, in the concluding week of my time at Hubbard Hall, I was fortunate enough to be presented the opportunity to record some of my most polished works with a fantastic pianist, Sara Chiesa. She provided expert coaching and nimbly skillful performance in the recordings, and I am so pleased with how they turned out. ‘Largo al factotum’ and ‘Hai gia vinta la causa!… Vedro mentr’io sospiro’  are both staples of the Italian baritone repertoire, and are surely pieces I will be performing for many years to come. Both can be found on my Audio/ Video page as well as embedded below, I hope you enjoy!

The reviews are in, and Hubbard Hall’s production of Rigoletto was a smashing success! Each of the 5 shows was for a packed house, turning away patrons and opera buffs left and right. The level of excellence in the cast gracing that stage was unparalleled, being praised as “world class” by the Eastwick Press. I can not be more thankful for my time spent at Hubbard Hall. I met incredible colleagues and grew immensely as a fully- rounded performer. Between two bang up productions, masterclasses with greats from the industry, private coaching, recording opportunities, and the beautiful country- side in which it is set, Hubbard Hall truly has the whole package to offer. I highly recommend auditioning for them to any performer looking to expand their horizons.

To learn more about Hubbard Hall or read one of the reviews of Rigoletto, check out the links below:

Hubbard Hall Website

Berkshire On Stage Review

Eastwick Press Review

Berkshire Fine Arts Review

Bedlamfarm Review

Also, if you’d like to enjoy the first half hour of our production, a video can be found below:

Hubbard Hall’s Rigoletto (Excerpt)

Meanwhile, back in Atlanta, I am now busily preparing for the upcoming auditions and events for upcoming seasons. Be sure to catch one of the Atlanta Opera’s productions of La Bohème, in which I will be performing in the chorus. The dates are posted below. I will also be performing the premiere of David Brighton’s completed song set ‘Quatre Chansons de Charles Baudelaire’ on October 4th in the Atlanta area. More details to come soon!

Atlanta Opera’s La Bohème: Cobb Energy Center

Saturday, October 3rd: 8pm

Tuesday, October 6th: 7:30pm

Friday, October 9th: 8pm

Sunday, October 11th: 3pm

Tickets can be purchased here

I am honored to have been featured in this video by Hubbard Hall Opera Theater giving thanks to the sponsors that fund our Conservatory program. I received a scholarship this season to work with this incredible company, and some of the money undoubtedly came from the good people mentioned in this video. I am so thankful to have been able to be a part of these fantastic productions here at Hubbard, and as a testament to that, I hope you enjoy these excerpts of me singing ‘When the Air Sings of Summer’ from Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief.

Tonight is the final open dress (pay what you will) for our staged production of The Old Maid and the Thief. Be sure to join us for either that or the 5 productions to follow in the coming week. Friday is opening night for our full staged production of Rigoletto with full orchestra, and I can assure you this is a show you won’t want to miss. All showtimes are listed below.

Rigoletto:

August 14th, 15th, & 20th: 8pm

August 22nd & 23rd: 2pm

The Old Maid and the Thief:

(Pay what you will open dress) August 13th: 8pm

August 15th & 16th: 2pm

August 19th, 21st, & 22nd: 8pm