UK Happenings

Curtain Rises on Met Opera District Auditions at Memorial Hall

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 21, 2014) – The Kentucky District Auditions of the Metropolitan (Met) Opera National Council Auditions will be held at University of Kentucky's Memorial Hall this weekend. The auditions, featuring the area's best collegiate vocal talents evaluated by a distinguished judging panel, will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 22. The event is free and open to the public.

The Met auditions are sponsored by Opera Lex. As part of the auditions, 20 participating opera vocalists will be judged by Wolfgang Brendel, professor of practice (voice) at Indiana University (IU); Carroll Freeman, Valerie Adams Distinguished Professor in Opera at Georgia State University; and Stanford Olsen, professor of voice at University of Michigan.  

Cliff Jackson, associate vocal coach at UK Opera Theatre in UK School of Music, will serve as the official accompanist.

A master class will be conducted by Brendel at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23. Before his appointment to IU's Jacobs School of Music, the baritone was a professor of voice at the Munich Hochschule für Musik und Theater. His artistic home for the greater part of his career was the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Brendel established his primacy as the star Munich baritone of his era across an extraordinary range of roles, from Mozart to Verdi to Wagner and beyond. In 1973, he achieved acclaim as Pelléas in a new production by Jean-Pierre Ponelle of Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande." He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1975 at the age of 27. Brendel has performed on all the major opera stages in Germany and Europe, in Tokyo and in the United States.

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions are a nation-wide vocal competition. In this 60th season of auditions there are 40 district auditions sites and 13 regional auditions sites throughout the continental United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Winners at the district level advance to compete in their region finals. This year's regionals will be here in Lexington on Feb. 21, 2015, at Memorial Hall.

In addition, the auditions serve to discover new participants in the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, a program designed to nurture the most talented young artists through training and performance opportunities. The program also provides financial aid and supervised artistic direction for young artists.

For more information on the Kentucky District Met auditions, contact Clifton Smith at 859-276-1551 ext. 215, or visit online at www.kydistrictauditions.org/currentseason.html.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu