Houston Grand Opera Announces 2026 CONCERT OF ARIAS Winners

Houston Grand Opera announced the winners for this year’s Concert of Arias, the 38th Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, held February 6 at the Wortham Theater Center and livestreamed for worldwide audiences.

The 2026 Concert of Arias winners are as follows:  

1st Place prize of $25,000: Scarlett Jones, soprano
2nd Place prize of $15,000: Misael Corralejo, Tenor
3rd Place prize of $10,000 : Lauren Randolph, Mezzo-soprano
The Audience Choice Award of $5,000: Misael Corralejo, Tenor
The Ana Mariá Martínez Encouragement Award of $2,000: Viktoriia Shamanska, Soprano

The Encouragement Award winner and all non-placing finalists also received a prize of $3,500.

The winners of the competition were chosen by a panel of opera-world luminaries: guest judge/mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, Co-Director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West; guest judge Julien Benhamou, Director of Production for the Théâtre des Champs Élysées and a casting consultant for the Metropolitan Opera and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; and judge Khori Dastoor, HGO General Director and CEO. Celebrated soprano and HGO favorite Ana María Martínez sponsored the winner of her Encouragement Award, with in-person and online audiences selecting the winner of the Audience Choice Award.

At the event, each finalist sang two arias accompanied by the HGO Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Patrick Summers, HGO’s longtime Artistic and Music Director, who at the end of this season will assume a new role with the company: Music Director Emeritus and holder of the Robert and Jane Cizik Music Director Emeritus Chair.

The competition unfolded live at the Wortham Theater Center, where an in-person audience was joined by viewers tuning in from around the world via HGO’s social channels. Houston Public Media executive producer and Hello Houston host Ernie Manouse served as livestream host, sharing the evening’s excitement with real-time commentary and exclusive behind-the-scenes moments.

Each season, HGO’s Eleanor McCollum Competition brings the opera world’s most promising emerging voices to Houston, reflecting the company’s commitment to the art form’s future. Singers arrive from around the world to compete in a rigorous multi-round process designed to identify artists with the potential to join the esteemed Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio and go onto major careers in opera. The journey culminates in the Concert of Arias, the competition’s live final round.

"Tonight’s concert was a celebration in every sense," said Dastoor. “These extraordinary young artists brought fearless joy and inspiring artistry to the stage, delivering performances they — and we — can be deeply proud of. It was thrilling to watch them step onto the Brown stage to perform with our beloved orchestra, led by Maestro Summers. The Concert of Arias is the purest expression of HGO’s mission: discovering, nurturing, and championing the voices that will define the future of opera."

"The Butler Studio team has been working tirelessly since last year, conducting a global search for the most promising rising voices in opera," said Butler Studio Director Colin Michael Brush. "It was incredibly moving to witness such a high level of achievement from our finalists on the Concert of Arias stage. We could not be prouder of them. Based on what we heard tonight, opera’s future is in excellent hands."

From a pool of more than 1,000 applicants, HGO advanced 18 singers to the semifinal round before selecting an elite group of seven finalists for the competition’s final round, the Concert of Arias. Along the way, these artists engaged with the company, working closely with music staff and gaining an inside view of HGO as they prepared to perform on the Cullen stage.

The full list of finalists included sopranos Scarlett Jones, Viktoriia Shamanska, Arpi Sinanyan, and Kayla Rae Stein; mezzo-soprano Lauren Randolph; tenor Misael Corralejo; and bass-baritone Tzvi Bat Asherah.

This year’s Concert of Arias was chaired by Drs. Rachel and Warren A. Ellsworth, IV. Through the generosity of many supporters, more than $815,000 — the largest amount in the event’s 38-year history — was raised to benefit the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers and the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio.

HGO was able to feature the HGO Orchestra at the 2026 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers thanks to the generosity of supporters Kathleen Moore and Steve Homer. The company was able to offer premier cash prizes thanks to supporters Michelle Beale and Dick Anderson (first place); Kelly and Cody Nicholson (second place); Ms. Diane M. Marcinek (third place); Jill A. Schaar and George Caflisch (Audience Choice); Hon. Theresa and Dr. Peter Chang, Jacqueline Macha and Brian Faulkner, Dr. and Mrs. Ronald Galfione, Dr. Alexandra Ikeguchi, and Dr. Yin Yiu and Ron Domantay (non-placing finalists); and Ana María Martínez (Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award).

Founded in 1977, the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio is internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading young artist programs. The program offers a rigorous, immersive training environment centered on hands-on professional experience, including regular coaching with leading industry artists, performance opportunities in HGO mainstage productions, recitals, and other concert engagements. In 2023, longtime HGO supporters Sarah and Ernest Butler established a $22 million fund within the HGO Endowment — the largest gift in the company’s history — leading to the program’s renaming in recognition of their extraordinary commitment to opera.