IU Jacobs School of Music and Indianapolis Clowes Hall Host Met Auditions This Month

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and Clowes MemoriAl Hall of Butler University will host two competitions for the annual Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) this month.

The Indiana District Auditions will be Saturday, Jan. 9, at 1 p.m., in Bloomington's Musical Arts Center. A week later, Saturday, Jan.16, at noon, the Tri-State Regional Auditions -- including winners from the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana District rounds -- will be held in Clowes MemoriAl Hall on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis. Both events are free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

Some previous winners of this elite competition, which identifies the best up-and-coming opera singers throughout the nation, are IU alumni Sylvia McNair (1982), Elizabeth Futral (1991), Angela Brown (1997) and Larry Brownlee (2001). Other well-known singers who were selected as past winners include Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Ben Heppner, Jessye Norman, Samuel Ramey, Frederica von Stade, Deborah Voigt and Dolora Zajick.

Judges for this year's district competition are Stephen Brown, Metropolitan Opera Company manager; Cynthia Lawrence, soprano; and Dean Williamson, Cleveland Opera artistic director.

Judges for the Regional auditions are John Churchwell, Metropolitan Opera coach; Gayletha Nichols, MONC executive director; and Jim Ireland, general director of Orlando Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is a program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers. The auditions take place annually in 15 regions of the United States and Canada.

Winners of the regional auditions win a trip to New York City to participate in the National Semi-Finals, March 7, on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Approximately 10 of the semi-finalists will be selected as national finalists and will compete in a public concert -- the Grand Finals Concert -- March 14, accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The jury awards approximately five Grand Winner awards of $15,000 each. The concert is broadcast nationwide on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Network.

The remaining National Finalists receive $5,000 each, and those singers who were National Semi-Finalists but did not advance to the National Finals will be given $1,500 to further their studies.

The following Jacobs School alumni have won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition Competition since 1965:

2007 Jamie Barton
2005 Jordan Bisch
2003 Christina Pier
2002 Twyla Robinson
2001 Larry Brownlee and Kristine Winkler
1998 Kyle Ketelsen
1997 Angela Brown
1996 Leah Creek
1993 Kathryn Krasovec
1992 Christopher Schaldenbrand
1991 Elizabeth Futral
1990 Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet and Clare Mueller
1988 Heidi Grant Murphy
1986 Mark Baker, Mark S. Doss, Marilyn Mims and Michael Sylvester
1985 Stephen Biggers, Richard Cowan and Julia Faulkner
1984 Gerald Dolter and Nova Thomas
1982 Sylvia McNair
1981 Rebecca Cook and Laura Brooks Rice
1980 Kevin Langan
1979 Jane Bunnell, Robert McFarland and Jan Opalach
1978 Wendy White
1974 Alma Jean Smith
1965 Richard Stilwell
For more information about the Jacobs School of Music, see http://music.indiana.edu/.