On Saturday at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music, singers will be vying for five prestigious full-tuition scholarships and $62,500 in cash awards. The Opera Scholarship Competition will be held on Saturday, March 17, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium.
It’s a high-stakes, daylong event featuring 27 current and incoming singers who are students in CCM’s storied opera department. They’ll be performing arias, songs and scenes before influential judges who have been flown in for the event.
Each contestant is judged on the basis of voice, acting, language, musicianship and style. The event is free and open to the public.
The scholarships are:
• The Corbett Award ($15,000): Supported by the Corbett Foundation in cooperation with CCM.
• The Italo Tajo Memorial Award ($15,000): Supported by the Italo Tajo Memorial Scholarship Fund (established by Mr. Tajo’s wife Inelda Tajo) in cooperation with CCM.
• The Andrew White Memorial Award ($12,500): Supported by the Andrew White Memorial Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.
• The Seybold-Russell Award ($10,000): Supported by the Seybold-Russell Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.
• The John Alexander Memorial Award ($10,000): Supported by the John Alexander Memorial Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.
This year’s judges are Michael Eberhart from Opera Philadelphia, Cory Lippiello from the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Steven Osgood from the Chautauqua Opera Company.
CCM has been rated the third-finest opera department in the country, after only Juilliard and Curtis (U.S. News and World Reports). Its students regularly place in the star-making Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. This year, Brandon Scott Russell, who will receive an Artist Diploma in Opera Performance, took first place at the Met’s regionals and will move on to the semi-final round, held on April 22, 2018 in New York City.
Read more about Brandon and CCM Opera in my column for the Business Courier.
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