Ten Singers Advance To The Final Round of the 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions

Following today's semifinal competition, ten singers have advanced to the final round of the Metropolitan Opera's 2021 National Council Auditions-the Grand Finals Concert, which will be streamed live on Sunday, May 16, at 3pm ET. The winners will receive individual cash prizes of $20,000, and the remaining finalists will receive $10,000.

The singers will perform virtually from locations around the world, for an audience of judges, industry leaders, and the general public. The finalists, chosen by a panel of opera administrators from the Met and other companies, will each sing two arias. The concert will be hosted by bass Ryan Speedo Green, a 2011 National Council Auditions winner. Captions will be available for the spoken portions of the event.

Registration is free and required to view the Grand Finals Concert; to register, visit concerts.kiswe.com/metopera. The Grand Finals will also be available to view on demand for 48 hours after the live event.

The 2021 finalists, the regions they represent in the competition, and their hometowns are:

• Jongwon Han, 26, bass-baritone (Rocky Mountain Region: Seoul, South Korea)
• Duke Kim, 29, tenor (Western Region: Seoul, South Korea)
• Hyoyoung Kim, 24, soprano (Southeast Region: Seoul, South Korea)
• Brittany Olivia Logan, 28, soprano (New England Region: Garden Grove, CA)
• Raven McMillon, 25, soprano (New England Region: Baltimore, MD)
• Timothy Murray, 29, baritone (Western Region: Milwaukee, WI)
• Murrella Parton, 30, soprano (Southeast Region: Seymour, TN)
• Erica Petrocelli, 28, soprano (Central Region: East Greenwich, RI)
• Emily Sierra, 23, mezzo-soprano (Eastern Region: Chicago, IL)
• Emily Treigle, 23, mezzo-soprano (Gulf Coast Region: New Orleans, LA)

This season, the National Council Auditions received nearly 1,200 applicants, with just over 600 singers qualifying for the 31 District Auditions. Of the 141 singers in the 10 Regional rounds, 23 were named semifinalists. To ensure safety and access for all involved, the auditions this season have taken place in a remote, live-streamed format from locations around the world.

These auditions are sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, including National Council members and hundreds of volunteers from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. More than $250,000 in prize money has already been awarded at the District and Regional rounds.

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, now in their 67th season, are a potentially career-making opportunity for aspiring opera singers, given the reach of the auditions, the number of applicants, and the program's long tradition. The auditions have been crucial in introducing many of today's best-known stars, including Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Eric Owens, Stephanie Blythe, Hei-Kyung Hong, Sondra Radvanovsky, Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Fabiano, Latonia Moore, Lisette Oropesa, Jamie Barton, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nadine Sierra, and Ryan Speedo Green.

The competition gained international fame with the release of the 2008 feature-length documentary The Audition, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, which chronicled the 2007 National Council Auditions season and Grand Finals Concert.

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