Met Opera Announces 2009 National Council Auditions Winners

The Metropolitan Opera today announced the winners of the 2009 National Council Auditions.

They are: Paul Appleby of South Bend, Indiana; Anthony Roth Costanzo of Durham, North Carolina; Sung Eun Lee of Seoul, South Korea; and Nadine Sierra of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Selected from eight finalists who performed arias with the Met Orchestra, conducted by Patrick Summers, at the Grand Finals Concert on February 22, each winner takes away a cash prize of $15,000.

The Grand Finals Concert was hosted by former winner Thomas Hampson and took place on the stage of the Met. During the judges' deliberations, and once the auditions portion of the program was completed, mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick appeared in a special performance singing "La luce langue" from Verdi's Macbeth. The Concert was dedicated to the memory of Gail Robinson, former director of the National Council Auditions and the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

The Grand Finals Concert was recorded for broadcast at a later date on public radio stations across the United States. Check local listings for air times.

Nearly 1,800 singers participated in this year's auditions, which are held annually in 45 districts and 15 regions throughout the United States and Canada, sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council. Given the reach of the auditions, the number of applicants, and the long tradition associated with them, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions are considered the most prestigious in North America for singers seeking to launch an operatic career. Equally important to the cash prizes is the opportunity to perform with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra on the historic opera house stage before an audience that includes opera company executives, artist managers, music critics, and other opinion-makers of the music world. Some winners are invited to join the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, which assists talented young singers through training and performance opportunities at the Met. The remaining four finalists: Noah A. Baetge of Seattle, Washington; Kiri Dyan Deonarine of Fair Lawn, New Jersey; Jessica Julin of Danville, California; and Sarah Mesko of Hot Springs, Arkansas, were each awarded $5,000.

Past winners of the Met Auditions include many of today's leading operatic artists such as Renée Fleming, Hei-Kyung Hong, Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Stephanie Blythe, Nathan Gunn, Ben Heppner, and Samuel Ramey. During a typical opera season, over one hundred alumni of the Auditions are on the Met roster.

Winners Biographical Notes

The following are brief biographical notes for the winners of the 2009 National Council Auditions. The region where each of them won the earlier round of competition is notated at the end of their biography.

Paul Appleby

TENOR

BIRTHPLACE South Bend, Indiana

AGE 25

Paul Appleby is a member of the Juilliard Opera Center, where he was recently heard as Gaston in Ernst Krenek's Schwergewicht and Rothschild in Veniamin Fleishman's Rothschild's Violin. Upcoming are Fenton in Falstaff at the Juilliard Opera Center and Agenore in Mozart's Il Re Pastore at Opera Theater of St. Louis, and recent performances include Achille in Iphigénie en Aulide with Juilliard Opera Theater and Ferrando in Così fan tutte at Chautauqua. He has performed extensively with Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song (including the world premieres of pieces by John Musto and William Bolcolm), and his concert credits include appearances with Musica Sacra, the Baton Rouge and Lansing Symphony Orchestras, Juilliard Choral Union, and the South Bend Symphony. He has performed as a young artist with the Chautauqua Institute, Opera Theater of St Louis, and the Steans Institute for the study of art song at Chicago's Ravinia Festival. He is a graduate of Notre Dame University and received his master's degree from Juilliard in 2008. (Eastern Region)

Anthony Roth Costanzo

COUNTERTENOR

BIRTHPLACE Durham, North Carolina)

AGE 26

Upcoming for Anthony Roth Costanzo are Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream as a guest artist with the Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program, the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas at Glimmerglass Opera, and his debut with the New York Philharmonic as Prince Go-Go in Ligeti's Le Grande Macabre. Last summer he sang Nireno in Giulio Cesare at Glimmerglass, where he was a member of that company's Young American Artists Program. He has appeared with the orchestras of Indianapolis, Alabama, Detroit, Denver, and Seattle, and was the soloist in the premiere of Corigliano's A Dylan Thomas Trilogy with the National Symphony Orchestra at both the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. He is a graduate of Princeton University and has a master's degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music. He co-wrote, produced, and starred in The Double Life of Zefirino (directed by Karole Armitage with costumes by James Ivory), which will be shown on PBS next season, and made his film debut in 1998 as Francis in Merchant Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. (Eastern Region)

Sung Eun Lee

TENOR
BIRTHPLACE Seoul, South Korea

AGE 30

Sung Eun Lee earned his bachelor's degree from Yonsei University in Korea and is in his second year of the master's program at Bard Conservatory. He sang Elvino in La Sonnambula and performed in group concerts in Italy as part of the 2006 Oberlin in Italy summer program, and has also sung Wilson Ford in Stephen Paulus's The Village Singer and Summers in Cimarosa's L'Italiana in Londra at the Manhattan School of Music. He was a 2007 regional winner of the National Council Auditions and last summer was a member of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Singer Program. This May he will be heard in a workshop with Osvaldo Golijov and Dawn Upshaw at Carnegie Hall before returning for his second summer in Santa Fe, where he is scheduled to sing The Headman in the world premiere of Paul Moravec's The Letter. (Eastern Region)

Nadine Sierra

SOPRANO

BIRTHPLACE Fort Lauderdale, Florida

AGE 20

Currently a student at The Mannes College of Music, Nadine Sierra has also trained with the International Vocal Arts Institute, The Music Academy of the West, and was a member of the Palm Beach Opera's Young Artist Program from 2002 through 2006. She made her recital debut in 2007 in New York in Marilyn Horne's "On Wings of Song" recital series. Her awards and scholarships include first place in the Junior Division of the 2007 Palm Beach Vocal Competition, first place in the 2007 Marilyn Horne Foundation Awards Competition, and second place in the 2008 National Society of Arts and Letters Competition. She has sung the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel and the First Spirit in Die Zauberflöte with the Palm Beach Opera and Beth in Mark Adamo's Little Women with the International Vocal Arts Institute. (New England Region)

 

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