Corbett Auditorium
CCM invites local audiences to hear tomorrow’s opera stars today during its prestigious national competition from 10 a.m. until approximately 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 15, in UC’s Corbett Auditorium.
Twenty-five current and incoming young artists will compete for approximately $100,000 in tuition grants and $65,500 in other named awards, including the Corbett Award, Italo Tajo Memorial Award, Andrew White Memorial Award, Seybold-Russell Award and John Alexander Memorial Award. Each contestant will be judged on the basis of voice, acting, language, musicianship and style in a complete dramatic performance of an aria.
A panel of judges composed of world-renowned opera industry professionals will select the winners. The judges’ panel for this year’s competition includes:
- Cori Ellison, Chief Dramaturg of the Glyndbourne Festival and Dramaturg at American Lyric Theatre in New York;
- Neal Goren, Artistic and General Director of the Gotham Chamber Opera in New York; and
- Craig Terry, Music Director of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The winners will be announced on Saturday afternoon, March 15, following the conclusion of the competition.
About the Judges
Cori Ellison, a leading creative figure in the opera world, currently serves as dramaturg at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and recently joined the Vocal Arts Faculty at the Juilliard School to teach the History of Singing. Active in developing new American opera, she teaches opera dramaturgy for American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program, and was the first dramaturg invited to participate in the Yale Institute for Music Theatre in 2009. She was dramaturg at New York City Opera from 1997-2010 and has served as production dramaturg for projects including Washington National Opera’s Ring cycle, Opera Boston’s The Nose, and Offenbach!!! at Bard Summerscape. She creates supertitles for opera companies across America and helped launch Met Titles, the Met’s simultaneous translation system. Her English singing translations include Hansel and Gretel (NYCO), La vestale (English National Opera) and Shostakovich’s Cherry Tree Towers (Bard Summerscape). She also writes for the New York Times, and has contributed to books including the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Metropolitan Opera Guide to Opera on Video and The Compleat Mozart. She regularly appears on the Metropolitan Opera’s radio broadcasts, teaches master classes for young singers worldwide and has lectured at venues including the Smithsonian Institution, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Santa Fe, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Seattle and Canadian operas.
Neal Goren has conducted throughout the U.S. and in Europe. For Gotham Chamber Opera he conducted critically acclaimed productions of Mozart’s II sogno di Scipione, Milhaud’s Les Malheurs d’Orphee, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (with period instruments), Martinu’s Hlas lesa and Les Larmes du couteau, Sutermeister’s Die schwarze Spinne, Handel’s Arianna in Creta (with period instruments), Britten’s Albert Herring, Rossini’s II Signor Bruschino, Haydn’s L’isola disabitata, Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires, Haydn’s II mondo della luna, Montsalvatge’s El gato con botas and the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters. As a recital accompanist, Goren has performed with Leontyne Price (as her exclusive musical collaborator), Kathleen Battle, Harolyn Blackwell, Haken Hagegard, Thomas Hampson, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Aprile Millo, Hermann Prey and others. He has been a member of the faculty of the graduate opera department of the Mannes College of Music since 1992.
A native of Tullahoma, Tennessee, pianist Craig Terry has launched an international career performing with some of the world’s leading singers and instrumentalists. He is in his seventh season as Assistant Conductor at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Previously, he served as Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera after joining its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Terry has performed with such esteemed vocalists as Sir Thomas Allen, Stephanie Blythe, Christine Brewer, Nicole Cabell, Sasha Cooke, Eric Cutler, Joseph Kaiser, Kate Lindsey, Danielle De Niese, Susanna Phillips, Patricia Racette, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Hugh Russell, Garrett Sorenson and Amber Wagner. He has collaborated as a chamber musician with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchester, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Pro Arte String Quartet. Terry’s 2011-2012 performance schedule includes recitals with Stephanie Blythe, Christine Brewer, Nicole Cabell, Giuseppe Filianoti, Kate Lindsey, Patricia Racette, Hugh Russell and Amber Wagner, as well as chamber music concerts with members of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra.
2014 Contestants
- Pedro Arroyo-Ojeda
- Simon Barrad
- Danielle Bayne
- Nicolette Book
- Christopher Bozeka
- Adria Caffaro
- Alec Carlson
- Stephen Carroll
- Jessica Faselt
- Paola Gonzalez
- Hillary Grobe
- Jasmine Habersham
- Summer Hassan
- Erin Keesy
- Joseph Lattanzi
- Kathryn Leemhuis
- Talya Lieberman
- Andrew Manea
- Alyssa Narum
- Edward Nelson
- Megan Slack
- Nicole Spoltore
- Ann Toomey
- Jason Weisinger
- Mengchun Yang
Performance Time
10 a.m. until roughly 4 p.m. Saturday, March 15
Location
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati
Admission
Admission to the Opera Scholarship Competition is FREE and open to the general public. Reservations are not required and audience members may enter and exit the theater at appropriate times throughout the day.
Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.
For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.
For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor and Musical Theatre Program Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation
Community Partner: ArtsWave
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