Licia Albanese News

?After a months-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named five young singers as the winners of the nation's most prestigious vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and the prestige and exposure that come with winning the competition that launched the careers of many of opera's biggest stars.

After an international search, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has chosen three new singers and one new pianist/coach for the 2016-17 HGO Studio. The artists are Yelena Dyachek, soprano, the Ana Maria Martinez Encouragement Award recipient at Concert of Arias 2016;  Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano, the second-place prize winner at Concert of Arias 2016;  Sol Jin, baritone, the Audience Choice Award winner at Concert of Arias 2016; and Peter Walsh, pianist/coach. One of the most respected and highly competitive young artist programs in the world, the HGO Studio provides comprehensive career development to young singers, pianist/coaches, and conductors who have demonstrated potential to make major contributions to the field of opera. The HGO Studio received applications from 475 artists; of those, about 275 were heard in auditions in Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles. For singers, the audition process culminates in HGO's annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, held this year on February 4.

Houston, March 7, 2016—After an international search, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has chosen three new singers and one new pianist/coach for the 2016–17 HGO Studio. The artists are Yelena Dyachek, soprano, the Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award recipient at Concert of Arias 2016; Zoie Reams, mezzo-soprano, the second-place prize winner at Concert of Arias 2016; Sol Jin, baritone, the Audience Choice Award winner at Concert of Arias 2016; and Peter Walsh, pianist/coach. One of the most respected and highly competitive young artist programs in the world, the HGO Studio provides comprehensive career development to young singers, pianist/coaches, and conductors who have demonstrated potential to make major contributions to the field of opera. The HGO Studio received applications from 475 artists; of those, about 275 were heard in auditions in Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles. For singers, the audition process culminates in HGO's annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, held this year on February 4.

Following yesterday's highly competitive semi-final competition, nine young singers will advance to the final phase of the Metropolitan Opera's 2016 National Council Auditions, America's most prestigious vocal competition. The selected finalists, chosen by a panel of experts from the classical music industry, will compete on the Met stage on Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m. The winners will receive individual cash prizes of $15,000 and the prestigious-and potentially career-launching-title of National Council Auditions Winner. The Grand Finals Concert will feature Antony Walker conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as each finalist performs two arias.

Several stage names are among the recipients of the newly renamed 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, to be presented at The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center tonight, March 2, 2016.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has chosen the finalists for the 28th annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center tonight, February 4, at 7 p.m.

Houston, February 2, 2016—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has chosen the finalists for the 28th annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center on today, February 4, at 7 p.m. This year's finalists are:

DALLAS, FEBRUARY 2, 2016 –Twenty of the finest young opera singers in the United States will be competing in the 28th Annual Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition presented, jointly, by The Dallas Opera and The Dallas Opera Guild. 

BroadwayWorld is excited to report several stage names among the recipients of the newly renamed 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, to be presented at The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center on March 2, 2016.

On Sunday, January 17, Opera Index will present its 37th Distinguished Achievement Award to Dolora Zajick, a true dramatic mezzo-soprano, acclaimed by The New York Times as “a mezzo in a class by herself,” at a gala evening beginning at 6 p.m. at JW Marriott Essex House, 160 Central Park South.

Opera Exposures (www.operaexposures.org), a not-for-profit tax exempt 501c3 organization founded in 2004, will present a Holiday Festival performance at historic St. Mark's Church (10th Street and Second Avenue) on Sunday, November 15, at 3:30 PM, it was announced by the organization's founder/producer Edna Greenwich.

NYCO Renaissance, under the leadership of Roy G. Niederhoffer and Michael Capasso, was joined by the official committee of unsecured creditors for the New York City Opera case. They filed as a '“a monumental step forward” and “in the best interests of the debtor's estate and creditors.”  A plan will be submitted in the near future.'

Washington Concert Opera is proud to announce its 2015-2016 Season. This season WCO returns to bel canto with Gioachino Rossini's SEMIRAMIDE (November 22, 2015), and Gaetano Donizetti's LA FAVORITE (March 4, 2016). True to Washington Concert Opera's mission, both are rarely performed opera masterpieces.

In the summer of 2015 the New York Philharmonic will undertake its first performance residencies in Shanghai, as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

In the summer of 2015 the New York Philharmonic will undertake its first performance residencies in Shanghai, as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

The Oratorio Society of New York is in its 142nd season as the city's standard for grand choral performance, and its tenth with its current music director, Kent Tritle. Celebrating the culmination of their landmark season together and, as it happens, emergence from a frigid and stormy winter, Tritle and the OSNY will present two life-affirming works for their spring concert: the ardent, hopeful Chichester Psalms of Leonard Bernstein, which will be conducted by the OSNY's associate conductor, David Rosenmeyer (also marking his tenth season with the group), and Carl Orff's spirited, bawdy Carmina Burana. Soloists Jennifer Zetlan, soprano; Peter Tantsits, tenor; Takaoki Onishi, baritone, and the Choristers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine join the OSNY tonight, May 5, 2015, at 8:00 pm, at Carnegie Hall.

The heavenly beauty of Faure's Requiem provides a soothing epilogue to Sibelius' thrilling call to freedom and Nielsen's stirring symphonic ode to optimism. The program will be conducted by former CSO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni and feature guest soprano Helene Brunet and guest baritone Anthony Clark Evans as well as the Columbus Symphony Chorus.

In the summer of 2015 the New York Philharmonic will undertake its first performance residencies in Shanghai, as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

The Oratorio Society of New York is in its 142nd season as the city's standard for grand choral performance, and its tenth with its current music director, Kent Tritle. Celebrating the culmination of their landmark season together and, as it happens, emergence from a frigid and stormy winter, Tritle and the OSNY will present two life-affirming works for their spring concert: the ardent, hopeful Chichester Psalms of Leonard Bernstein, which will be conducted by the OSNY's associate conductor, David Rosenmeyer (also marking his tenth season with the group), and Carl Orff's spirited, bawdy Carmina Burana. Soloists Jennifer Zetlan, soprano; Peter Tantsits, tenor; Takaoki Onishi, baritone, and the Choristers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine join the OSNY on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, at 8:00 pm, at Carnegie Hall.