New York, NY (February 24, 2008) – The Metropolitan Opera today
announced the winners of the 2008 National Council Auditions. They are: René Barbera of San Antonio, Texas; Jennifer Johnson of St. Louis, Missouri; Daveda Karanas of Mandeville, Louisiana; Simone Osborne of Vancouver, British Columbia; and Edward Parks of Indiana, Pennsylvania. Selected from nine finalists who performed arias with the Met Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Lord, at the Grand Finals Concert on February 24, each winner takes away a cash prize of $15,000. The remaining four finalists, Dominic Armstrong of Kirksville, Missouri, Carolina Castells of Miami, Florida, Christopher Magiera of Lake Forest, Illinois, and Stephen A. Ray of Sherwood, Arkansas, were each awarded $5,000.
The Grand Finals Concert was hosted by Patricia Racette, a leading soprano with the Met and a former Auditions participant. The concert took place on the Met stage, framed by the set for the new production of Peter Grimes. During the judges’ deliberations, and once the auditions portion of the program was completed, mezzo-soprano and 1992 National Council winner Michelle DeYoung appeared in a special performance singing “Du bist der Lenz” from Wagner’s Die Walküre and “Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse!” from Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila.
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 1,500 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. 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.
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, Dolora Zajick, Nathan Gunn, Ben Heppner, Thomas Hampson, and Samuel Ramey. During a typical opera season, over one hundred alumni of the Auditions sing in Met performances.
Winners Biographical Notes
The following are brief biographical notes for the winners of the 2008 National Council Auditions. The region where each of them won the earlier round of competition is notated at the end of their biography.
René Barbera
TENOR
BIRTHPLACE San Antonio, Texas
AGE 23
Currently a Bachelor of Music candidate at North Carolina School of the Arts, Mr. Barbera will join the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program this summer. He was a first prize winner in the 2007 Charlotte Opera Guild Competition and the 2006 Heafner/Williams Vocal Competition, has appeared with the Piedmont Opera Theater, and has sung Arbace in Idomeneo and Bacchus in Orpheus in the Underworld at the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute. (Southeast Region)
Jennifer Johnson
MEZZO-SOPRANO
BIRTHPLACE St. Louis, Missouri
AGE 23
A second-year graduate student at Houston’s Rice University, Jennifer Johnson received her Bachelor’s degree from Webster University. Among the roles she has sung are Ramiro in La Finta Giardiniera, Emma Jones in Street Scene, and the title role of Rinaldo. She has worked with the Opera Theatre St. Louis for the past two summers as a Gerdine Young Artist and will return to that company this summer to sing Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. (Midwest Region)
Daveda Karanas
MEZZO-SOPRANO
BIRTHPLACE Mandeville, Louisiana
AGE 28
A first-year Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera Center, Daveda Karanas sang Tisbe in La Cenerentola last year with that company’s Merola Opera Program. She made her professional debut in 2006 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and since that time has sung Ericlea in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria with Chicago Opera Theater, La Principessa in Suor Angelica with Boston University Opera Institute, Marchesa Melibea in Il Viaggio a Reims with the Music Academy of the West, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, and Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia with Arizona State University, and Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Baba in The Medium with Southeastern Louisiana University. She is a graduate of Arizona State University and Southeastern Louisiana University. (Gulf Coast Region)
Simone Osborne
SOPRANO
BIRTHPLACE Vancouver, British Columbia
AGE 21
Currently studying at the University of British Columbia, Simone Osborne was the 2007 winner of the International Czech and Slovak Voice Competition. She has sung Mařenka in The Bartered Bride, Musetta in La Bohème and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with the UBC Opera and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Atalanta in Xerxes with North Bohemian Opera. She has also sung Strauss’s Brentano Lieder in concert with UBC Symphony, and appeared in solo recitals across British Columbia. (Northwest Region)
Edward Parks
BARITONE
HOMETOWN Indiana, Pennsylvania
AGE 24
Edward Parks is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and is currently completing his Master of Music at Yale University. He was heard at Oberlin as Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and Belcore in L'Elisir d’Amore, and his performances at Yale include Marcello in La Bohème, Jupiter in Orphée au Enfers, and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. In May he sings the Lieutenant/Judge in Davis’s Amistad at Charleston’s Spoleto Festival. This summer he sings Snooks in Bolcom’s A Wedding at the Music Academy of The West where he has previously been heard as Don Prudenzio in Il Viaggio a Reims. (New England Region)