UK Vocalists Sweep Ky. Met Auditions, Advance to Regional
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 25, 2014) — Three University of Kentucky vocalists, graduates Rebecca Farley and Matthew Turner and graduate student Christopher Kenney, were named winners of the Kentucky District Auditions of the Metropolitan (Met) Opera National Council Auditions held Nov. 22, at Memorial Hall.
Farley, a soprano; Turner, a bass; and Kenney, baritone, are still in the running to sing on the Metropolitan Opera stage, and their next audition will be at the Mid-South Regional round of auditions being held on the UK campus Feb. 21, 2015, at Memorial Hall. Traditionally, only one singer from each regional round will advance to the national semi-finals in New York.
A native of Henderson, Kentucky, Farley earned her bachelor's degree from UK in 2013. Local audiences may remember her as one of three UK sopranos who sang the role of Christine in UK Opera Theatre’s blockbuster 2012 production of "The Phantom of the Opera" in October and winner of the Advanced Women Division of the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition later that same month. She placed second at the 2013 Mid-South Regional. Farley was the student of Endowed Chair, Professor of Voice Cynthia Lawrence.
A Lexington resident, Turner is a 2014 accounting and vocal performance graduate of UK. Local audiences will remember him as one of two leads in UK Opera Theatre's production of "Sweeney Todd" earlier this fall. He spent the summer as a studio artist with the Wolf Trap Opera Company in Vienna, Virginia. Turner was the student of Dennis Bender, associate professor of voice, and Everett McCorvey, director of UK Opera Theatre and the Lexington Opera Society Endowed Chair in Opera Studies.
Kenney, a native of Fargo, North Dakota, holds a bachelor's degree from Concordia College, located in Moorhead, Minnesota. He is currently pursuing his master's degree under Lawrence.
All of the Kentucky District Auditions Encouragement Awards were also presented to UK vocalists. The students presented with this honor were voice performance and music theatre junior Mary Catherine Wright, of Lexington; doctoral candidate Shareese Arnold, of Sheffield, Alabama; and graduate student Jonathan Parham, of Cordele, Georgia.
The highly acclaimed UK Opera Theatre program is part of the UK School of Music at the UK College of Fine Arts. For more information on the program, visit online at http://finearts.uky.edu/music/ukot.
The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions program provides a venue for young opera singers from all over the U.S. to be heard by a representative of the Met. Applicants prepare a minimum of five operatic arias in their original language; selections must demonstrate contrasting style as well as languages. Upon completing the audition, candidates are given the opportunity to meet with the judges personally to discuss matters of evaluation and advice.
The Met holds the auditions to discover new talent and to search for possible participants in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. The Lindemann program, designed to nurture the most talented young artists through training and performance opportunities, provides financial aid together with supervised artistic direction to the young artists.
The district level, which was hosted by OperaLex, is the first stage of the three-tiered audition process, and contestants can choose to compete in any district regardless of their place of residence. There is no set number of singers to advance to compete in the regional with roughly 1,500 singers participating each year in the 16 regions across the country.
Regional finals for this area include participants from the Kentucky, Arkansas, Middle/East Tennessee, North Alabama and West Tennessee/Mississippi districts. Winners at the regional level advance to the National Council Auditions Semi-Finals in New York in the spring. Only eight to 10 singers are selected as national finalists and perform in the Winners Concert at the Met.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu