Winners: OPERA COMPANIES, 2021

Enrico Caruso at Canio in I Pagliacci

(This listing was updated 9/20/21 to correct a clerical error.—DK)

The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts, David (Volosin) Katz, chief judge, is honored to announce the winners, runners-up, and honorable mentions of The American Prize in Opera Performance, 2021, in all divisions. Congratulations! 

Complete listings of finalists and semi-finalists in The American Prize competitions may be found elsewhere on this blog. Please use the chronological tool in the right-hand column to find specific results.

Please make us aware of any misprints: theamericanprize@gmail.com

The American Prize in Opera Performance—professional division, 2021

The American Prize winner:

Erie Mills  

Livermore Valley Opera  

Livermore  CA

A Florentine Tragedy—Zemlinsky

Gianni Schicchi

A Florentine Tragedy

The history of Livermore Valley Opera (LVO) dates to its founding in 1992 as a volunteer opera company performing in a high school auditorium. Since the opening of the intimate Bankhead Theater in downtown Livermore in 2007, LVO has grown to become a world-class professional company. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Erie Mills and Music Director Alexander Katsman, LVO brings to its community, not only traditionally staged productions of standard repertoire, but innovative twists on familiar pieces – like our 1950’s Hollywood setting of The Marriage of Figaro and our Wild West production of Don Pasquale – as well as operas new to our community – like Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers. Our 2019-2020 season concluded with a Double-Bill production of Alexander Zemlinsky’s rarely performed A Florentine Tragedy and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, both set in the Florence of 1918, the year of their composition. https://www.livermorevalleyopera.com/

The American Prize 2nd Place:

John Hoomes

Nashville Opera    

Nashville   TN

One Vote Won—Ragland

One Vote Won

Nashville Opera, Tennessee’s largest professional opera company, creates artistic experiences that elevate our world. Led by CEO & Artistic Director John Hoomes, Nashville Opera is among the most successful regional companies in the country. The company has presented four different world premiere operas since its inception in 1981, and is known for its innovative productions. Mainstage performances are presented at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and the Noah Liff Opera Center, playing to over 10,000 people annually. Each year, Nashville Opera’s extensive education and outreach touring program reaches approximately 25,000 students throughout Middle Tennessee.  Visit www.nashvilleopera.org for more information.

 

The American Prize 3rd Place:

Scott Skiba  

Cleveland Opera Theater 

Cleveland  OH   

La Boheme

La Boheme

Cleveland Opera Theater is Cleveland’s Premier Opera Company

Mission: To produce vibrant, accessible, innovative, and engaging opera in Greater Cleveland.

Vision: Opera For All

Cleveland Opera Theater fulfills its mission through performances that reach out to diverse audiences providing accessible gateways to experience, explore, and engage in opera:

FEATURE artists of international renown, professional artists with roots in the community, and those who make Northeast Ohio their home

EMBRACE collaboration and foster interdisciplinary projects with other arts and community organizations, and educational and service institutions

ADVANCE opera in the present with contemporary approaches to opera, re-imagined productions and performances in non-traditional venues

ADVOCATE for the future of opera by promoting the creation and performance of new works, and by educating and developing audiences and artists of tomorrow

ClevelandOperaTheater.org

The American Prize Honorable Mention:

Rachel M. Harris 

Heartland Opera Theatre 

Joplin   MO

Gianni Schicchi / Suor Angelica

Gianni Schicchi

Heartland Opera Theatre strives to bring professional performances of opera and musical theatre to the Four-State Area, engaging regional, national, and international performers, as well as promoting exceptionally talented local artists. Heartland Opera Theatre is a 501(c)(3) performing arts organization established in 1998 by Terrence O’Brien. Since its creation the Heartland Opera Theatre, or HOT, has provided professional performances of opera and musical theatre to the Four-State Area. HOT has hosted performers from around the globe and toured full productions through Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. HOT strives to not only engage national and international performers, but also to showcase exceptional local artists from the community and surrounding universities.  Heartland Opera Theatre has worked for years in collaboration with Missouri Southern State University, Pittsburg State University, the upsideDown Theatre, Crowder College, Community Theatre Productions and others, striving to bring professional theater to the Four-State Community.

  

The American Prize in Opera Performance—college/university division, 2021 (larger program)

The American Prize winner:

Buck Ross   

Moores School of Music—U. of Houston  

Houston  TX   

Dinner at Eight—Bolcom

Dinner at Eight

The Moores Opera Center was founded by Buck Ross in 1986. The Center performs four productions per year in the spectacular Moores Opera House. The company is a champion of new opera, performing one work per season by a living composer. Notable contemporary productions have included John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, Dominick Argento’s Casanova’s Homecoming (released on Newport Classic), Conrad Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons, Robert Nelson’s The School for Scandal and A Room with a View (released on Newport Classic DVD), Jonathan Dove’s Flight, and Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. We were the first university to produce Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath, Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry, Daron Hagen’s Amelia, John Musto’s The Inspector, David Carlson’s Anna Karenina, Thomas Pasatieri’s Frau Margot, and Catán’s Il Postino.

The American Prize 2nd Place (there was a tie):

Jacque Trussel

Purchase Opera—State University of NY  

Purchase NY   

Dido & Aeneas

Dido and Aeneas

The Purchase Opera, performing arm of The Opera Performance/Vocal Studies Area in the Conservatory of Music/S.U.N.Y., has received critical acclaim, collecting eleven National Opera Association - Best Opera of the Year awards, including the American East Coast premiere of Lee Hoiby’s The Tempest. Working with the composer the company later recorded one of the only existing recordings of the piece (Albany Records). The company also presented the World Premiere of Raphael Lucas’ Confession, winning National Opera Association’s International competition for Best Chamber Opera, 2011/12 (also recorded for Albany Records). In March 2016 , they presented Robert Ward’s The Crucible, which was recorded on Albany Records in September 2016. In December 2019 they presented a very spare and avantgarde version of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas in the first collaboration with the Purchase Dance Dept.  and were about to present the 15th Anniversary production of Dialogues of the Carmelites when the world was stricken with Covid19.

The American Prize 2nd Place (there was a tie):

Dugg McDonough   

Louisiana State University   

Baton Rouge   LA   

Two Remain (Out of Darkness)—Heggie

Two Remain (Out of Darkness)

The Turner-Fischer Center for Opera at LSU, one of the first major university programs in the United States, has produced exceptional singers who have sung on world opera stages such as the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, New York City Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, and Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.  The Turner-Fischer Center annually produces four mainstage productions: two fully staged and designed shows, accompanied by the LSU Symphony Orchestra, alongside smaller staged works, performed with piano or chamber ensemble.  Both standard and contemporary repertoire is programmed, with recent highlights including multiple Collegiate Premieres.  In recent years, the Turner-Fischer Center has garnered numerous national awards from organizations like The American Prize and the National Opera Association.  At LSU, in addition to private voice lessons, singers receive personal music coaching and extensive training in lyric theater stagecraft.

The American Prize 3rd Place:

Samuel Mungo  

Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University    

Baltimore  MD 

Pride and Prejudice—Mechem

The Falling and the Rising—Redler

The Falling and the Rising

The Peabody Opera Theatre Program serves the educational needs of students in the conservatory, while offering a variety of operatic performances to audiences in the Baltimore and Mid-Atlantic region. It strives to define the future of opera from two angles: provide training of the whole opera artist, and provide our community with socially aware productions of significant repertoire, standard and contemporary. Our public offerings each year range from the two major productions of the Peabody Opera Theatre to the numerous outreach performances of the Opera Outreach program, which brings children’s opera to schools all across Maryland and socially conscious opera to the community at large. In addition, Peabody Opera presents performances of baroque opera, contemporary opera, and musical theater in a variety of venues, for a total of 6-7 productions and around 40 performances annually.

The American Prize in Opera Performance—college/university division, 2021 (smaller program)

The American Prize winner:

Stella Markou 

University of Missouri- St. Louis 

St. Louis  MO   

The Medium

The Medium

Sought after as a performer and educator, soprano Stella Markou has built a nationally-recognized opera program from the ground up. Receiving top prizes from the National Opera Association, Dr. Markou has produced and directed numerous productions ranging from the Baroque to the 21st-Century. 

 

Dr. Markou has performed internationally at the Paros, Naxos, and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, and has been a featured soloist with the Nashville Ballet, Masterworks Chorale, Dance New Amsterdam, Ambassadors of Harmony, Union Avenue Opera, and Arianna String Quartet, among others.

 

An Associate Professor of Music, she is currently the Director of Vocal Studies and Opera Theatre at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She received her degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Arizona. Her work can be found on the SEAMUS and MSR record labels. www.stellamarkou.com

The American Prize 2nd Place (there was a tie):

Scott Skiba 

Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music  

Berea    OH   

Pelleas and Melisande

Pelleas and Melisande

Student-centered. Nationally acclaimed. Bold. Our undergraduate-only Conservatory of Music is a vibrant community where passion, precision and creative expression lead to meaningful learning and extraordinary performance.  The All-Steinway Conservatory is a top-ranking program of 13 undergraduate majors that provides students with extraordinary opportunities to perform, compose, conduct, teach and excel in their studies and preparation for becoming citizen artists.  Distinguished Conservatory faculty bring real-world experience, impressive credentials and professional connections to the undergraduate-only Conservatory of Music.  Small classes, rigorous curriculum, a culture of performance, and faculty mentoring are hallmarks of a BW education.  Our award-winning Voice Performance program provides holistic training to develop the talents of our exceptional students through a unique curriculum of voice lessons, coachings, diction & literature, language, an eight-semester performance workshop curriculum, and professional-quality opera productions.  Our graduates continue their studies at top graduate schools and perform with premiere opera companies of the world. www.BWVP.org

The American Prize 2nd Place (there was a tie):

Darren P. Lawson 

Bob Jones University    

Greenville    SC   

Cosi fan tutte

Cosi fan tutte

The Bob Jones University Opera Association was founded in 1942 as part of the university’s commitment to liberal arts training for all of its students, who are provided free tickets to the productions. It has become a national award-winning organization that mounts major operatic works, including Aida, Mefistofele, Samson et Dalila, Tosca, Andrea Chenier, L’Elisir d’Amore, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, La Cenerentola, and others. The group also presents large-scale musicals as part of its season, including Little Women: The Broadway Musical and Titanic: The Musical.  Productions are presented regularly, with guest artists featured in the principal roles along with student and faculty soloists. Supporting roles and chorus parts are taken by students who show requisite ability. http://www.bju.edu/events/fine-arts/concert-operadrama/archive/

The American Prize 3rd Place:

Copeland Woodruff

Lawrence University Conservatory of Music 

Appleton WI

The Marriage of Figaro

The Marriage of Figaro

Lawrence University and Conservatory of Music is an all-undergraduate, liberal arts institution. The opera studies division is dedicated to training the young singing actor in all the elements for success: musical styles, acting, text/languages, and modern as well as traditional theatrical techniques. Recent productions have garnered national attention, because of their well-crafted and dedicated musical and dramatic performances. Offering performance opportunities as varied as improvised micro-operas, scenes programs, main stage operas, and re-imagined recital formats, LU is preparing the 21st-Century singing artist to meet the challenges of today’s market. Opera studies faculty: Copeland Woodruff and Andrew Crooks. Voice faculty: Kenneth Bozeman, Joanne Bozeman, Steven Paul Spears, Karen Leigh-Post, John Holiday, and John Gates.

The American Prize Special Citation for Artistic Achievement

Nicholas Fahrenkrug

Lawrence University Conservatory of Music   

Appleton WI     

Dichterliebe—Within + Without

Dichterliebe—Within +Without

Nicholas Fahrenkrug recently graduated from Lawrence University with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. During his time there, he performed roles in the main stage opera productions in addition to maintaining a consistent competition presence. He placed first in his division at the Wisconsin chapter of NATS three years in a row, second at the Schubert Club scholarship competition in 2018, and achieved first place for his collaboration in Leoncavallo’s “Nedda/Silvio duet” at the 2020 National Opera Association’s Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition. Later this year, Nicholas will move to Baton Rouge, LA to attend the LSU School of Music. Due to the outbreak and fallout of Covid-19 earlier this year, Nicholas found a special opportunity to fuse his love for visual art with his performative vocal training through creating his short performance film, “Dichterliebe: Within and Without.” Not only an art piece, Nicholas holds the film as a true chronicle of his life at this point in space and time.

 

 

*** 

Congratulations!

The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts, David (Volosin) Katz, founder and chief judge, is the nation's most comprehensive series of contests in the musical and theater arts. The American Prize is nonprofit, unique in scope and structure, and is designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performers, composers, conductors, ensembles and directors in the United States, at professional, college/university, community and school levels, based on submitted recordings. There is no live competition. 

Founded in 2010 and now celebrating its eleventh year, The American Prize has awarded nearly $100,000 in prizes in all categories since its creation. Thousands of artists representing all fifty states have derived benefit from their participation in the contests of  The American Prize. 

The American Prize will accept applications for the 2021-22 contest season through September 14, 2021 or with extension request. www.theamericanprize.org