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For these young artists, the adjudicators may judge their voices, but it is the competition that tests their mettle.
"I try to impress on young singers that they’re going to be in this business when money is so tight, and they need to appreciate what people do for them." Ruthanne Sullivan, past President Connecticut Opera Guild.
Out of 160 entrees, 32 finalists were chosen, and from those 32 finalists these lucky and talented 14 were se;lected. They are (l to r): First Row: John Salvi, winner of the $1,000 Micki Savin Award; Meredith Ziegler, winner of the $500 Ilene D. Kaplan Award; Heather Johnson, winner of the $1,000 Carmella D'Eopo Award; Sarah Callinan, winner of the $1,000 Sylvia E. & Martin A. Rothman Award; Susan Ruggieri-Mezzadri, winner of the $500 Joseph Frank Spada Award; Sarah Kraus, winner of the $750 Samuel & Norma Elli Millerr and Charlotte Miller Sutner Award. Second Row: Jordan Shanahan, winner of the $750 June Miller Rosenblatt Award; Hak Soo Kim, winnder of the $1,000 Sue M. Wiesman Award; Tamara Mumfford, winner of the $1,000 Frank abd Carmella Pandolfi Award. Third Row: Jason Abrams, winner of the $5,000 Del Drummey/Connecticut Opera Award; Michael Ventura, winner of the $2,500 Judith Bardi Rosenthal Award; Steven Fasano, winnder of the $750 Highwood Award; and Christopher Bolduc, winner of the $1,000 Maestro Willie Anthony Waters 25th Anniversary Award.
A personal essay:
By Paul Joseph Walkowski
OperaOnline.us
The Finalists:
Meredith Ziegler, mezzo soprano
Laurentiu Rotaro, bass-baritone
Jordan Shanahan, baritone
Valerie Arboit, mezzo soprano
Jennifer Greene, soprano
Scott Guinn, baritone
Sarah Callinan, soprano
Shelby Condray, bass
Krista Adams Santilli, soprano
Christopher Bolduc, baritone
Sarah Kraus, mezzo soprano
Stalla Dayrit Roden, lyric soprano
Steven Fasano, baritone
Stephanie Dawn Johnson, soprano
Kwang-Kyu Lee, bass baritone
Megan Besley, soprano
Heather Johnson, mezzo soprano
Randall Scotting, countertenor
You-Jin Chung, mezzo soprano
Meredith Hansen, soprano
Tom O'Toole, baritone
Tamara Mumford, mezzo soprano
Hyunjee Kim, soprano
Susan Ruggiero-Mezzadri, soprano
Diego Matamoros, baritone
Jason Abrams, countertenor
John Salvi, baritone
Kristin Reiersen, soprano
Andrea Moore, soprano
Hak Soo Kim, tenor
Donna Maria Pimental, soprano
Luis Yo, tenor
Michael Ventura, bass
The goal of all youg artists is to end up here: Maestro Willie Anthony Waters on stage with some of his favorite singers at his 25th Anniversary concert and banquet.
Jason Abrams, countertenor
scored big for his vocal style winning the top honor, The Del Drummey Connecticut Opera Award and $5,000. We asked: Who did you tell about it? He answered: "I told my parents and brothers that I'd won 1st Place in the competition immediately. Show-offs make me really uncomfortable, so I'm probably overly modest about achievement, and as a result, I told only a few of my friends. My pianist and good friend, Jocelyn Dueck, sent out an e-mail to all the 2004 Tanglewood Vocal and Pieno fellows and within 24 hours, I had a flood of congratulatory emails and phone calls from friends and colleagues."
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Last year we covered the competition from the adjudicator’s perspective and told our readers what several distinguished judges said they looked for when evaluating a singer’s performance. That article can be found in our archive section of this site. This year we interviewed several young artists and asked that they tell us something themselves and what brought them to Connecticut to compete. When read together, the two articles should give a pretty good picture of what competition is all about and what it means to both singer and those who judge their work.
I arrive at the Wallace Stevens Theatre in Hartford Connecticut early this Saturday, May 14 and notice some members of the Guild with identification tags setting up the ticket tables. The weather outside is considerably different today from the day the competition occurred last year (2004) when the temperature was near ninety, hot and humid. This day there’s a slight overcast sky and it’s mercifully cooler for May.
I introduce myself to one of the woman, Ruthanne Sullivan, and ask if, when she gets a moment, she would answer a few questions about this tear's competition. She recognizes my card and said how pleased the Guild was with last year’s coverage of the event by OperaOnline.us.
"Sure, how about now?" she said.
Ruthanne Sullivan has been President of the 51-year old, 180-member Guild for the past four years. This is her last year in the role of President which ends June 2.
Just as we begin to talk a number of singers arrive and head for the dressing area. Their arrival prompts me to ask, “What kind of a turnout is expected?”
“What we have done in the past” she explained, clearly pleased with the response the Guild received, “is send notices out to all the music schools and any other place that we think might have young singers available. But this year Willie Waters [General and Artistic Director of Connecticut Opera] suggested that we advertise in Classical Singer and we did. Last year we had seventy applications and this year we had one-hundred and sixty. And the quality of this year’s participants was absolutely incredible.”
The application process is fairly straightforward, she notes. “We ask them [singers] to send in a tape or CD, then we block out absolutely everything, and we give them to Willie Waters and he listens to them and picks them out by the numbers. He has no idea of their background, who they’re with or anything about it, so it’s a really blind picking.” This year, she said, Maestro Waters “picked 32 finalists out of 160 applicants. And some of them were Metropolitan Opera contest winners, so we’re really excited about this whole competition.”
As it has in the past, the Guild divides the awards into categories with the First Place winner receiving the “Del Drummey/Connecticut Opera Award” and a check for $5,000. Thirteen other finalists will win awards ranging from $500 to $2,500. “People ask why [we don’t] put the scholarships all together,” creating a larger top prize. She explained that “people give the scholarships in honor of other people”, and acknowledging the contribution is very important to the donor -- and the importance of recognition goes both ways, she stressed. The donors want to acknowledge and recognize young artists, and the young artists should reciprocate. “It’s equally important for the singers to acknowledge the award after receiving it” she added, asking that I stress the point if I mention it at all. She continued: “I put a letter in [with the award] about who gave the scholarship and what this person was noted for and ask them [the singer] to write a letter to the donor. I try to impress on young singers that they’re going to be in this business when money is so tight, and they need to appreciate what people do for them.”
We both note that the time for competition is drawing near. I thank Ms. Sullivan for her time and as I walk into the auditorium, notice that where last year the competition was adjudicated by three judges, this year there are five, two of whom are new: Alan Mann, General & Artistic Director of Mississippi Opera and Artistic Director of Opera Theatre of Connecticut; and John Miller, President of Pinnacle Arts Management, New York. As with last year, Dr. Constance Rock, Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Connecticut, Joseph Spada, Connecticut Opera historian and a member of the Connecticut Opera Board of Trustees, and Maestro Willie Anthony Waters are also present.
I note also that the audience this year is considerably larger than last. I see some familiar faces. The competition is slated to begin at Noon. With just a few minutes to starting time the halls outside the auditorium are busy with activity. Singers are now dressed and moving about anxiously: men dressed in suits, and women, for the most part, in dresses and heels. The mood among the singers is familial but anxious. None enter the hall to see their competition sing
The competition begins:
It's nerve-wracking sitting in the audience. I can only imagine what the singers feel like as they await their turn to take center stage. I’m certain that those of us in the audience wish that every singer would leave with an award.
The list of 32 singers suggests a long afternoon. In fact, the competition ends a little before six in the evening. I am acutely aware of time because I have to dash across state after the competition and attend a performance of Connecticut Grand Opera & Orchestra's "Don Giovanni" in Stamford. I won't arrive back in Boston until sometime after two in the morning. It's going to be a long day.
But for the singers, this day, this afternoon, must be even longer.
The first singer, Meredith Ziegler, soprano, approaches the stage from a side aisle without any announcement and takers her place beside the piano. She seems poised, confident and relaxed. She chooses for her first selection, "Smanie implacabili" from Mozart's "Cosi fan tuti." When she is done, she remains by the piano and awaits further instructions. From the rear of the auditorium Maestro Waters asks that she sing "Must the Winter Come so Soon" from Barber's "Vanessa." If she is put off balance by being asked to sing an aria different from the one she may have planned, she doesn't show it. "My main goal," she said afterward, "is to sing the best that I can and be committed to the text that I am singing." It’s a focus that is expressed by all the singers.
Meredith Ziegler impressed the judges because she was awarded the Ilene D. Kaplan Award and a check for $500 for her efforts.
Throughout the afternoon the singers follow one another on stage, present their sheet music to Mr. Doug Dickson, the accompanist, and other than introducing themselves and telling the audience and judges what they will be singing, no other words or introductions are spoken. You introduce yourself and the music you will be singing. Each singer nods toward the pianist, signifying when they are ready, and the competition proceeds on its own natural rhythm.
