With our 19th annual Vocal Competition only weeks away, we thought you’d enjoy hearing how the careers of some of our past winners have blossomed on the heels of their success in Dallas — thanks to their talent, hard work, and your support.

2006 Winners

All three 2006 winners are currently Artists in Residence at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.

First place winner Takesha Kizart (soprano) has just signed with artistic manager Tim Menah in London, who obviously feels as optimistic about her future as we did here in Dallas! A former vocal performance honors student at UNT, she has won numerous competitions throughout the world, including national semi-finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Marian Anderson Historical Society, Mario Lanza Institute Vocal Scholarship Competition, Opera Index, and, recently, Grand Prize winner of the Voci Verdiane International Competition in Busseto, Italy, the first African-American to ever win the Grand Prize. She has sung with the Dallas Opera, the Fort Worth Opera, the Fort Worth Symphony, Concert Operetta Theater in Philadelphia, and the Haddonfield Symphony, among others. She will appear later this month in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa at the Academy of Vocal arts in Philadelphia.

Cody Fosdick (tenor), our second place winner, is in his first year of residence at the Academy of Vocal Arts following graduate work at Indiana University’s School of Music, where he performed extensively in operatic productions.

Third place winner Steven LaBrie (baritone) barely met the age requirement to enter our competition, then walked away with both the People’s Choice Award and a special Mozart Aria award given by TDO’s General Director Karen Stone in honor of the composer’s 250th birthday. He is currently a first year artist at AVA, where he has performed roles in Il barbiere de Siviglia and Eugene Onegin, in addition to his role as Antonio in Le Nozze de Figaro with The Living Opera of Dallas.

John Boer (baritone) is currently a resident artist with the Palm Beach Opera Company. He was a second place winner in the Southwest Regional Finals of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council audition, a previous fellow of the Tanglewood Music Festival, and was in the Santa Fe Opera Young Artist Program last summer. He will be part of the Santa Fe Opera’s Spring Tour beginning in March 2007.

2005 Winners

Baritone Weston Hurt, winner of both our 2005 Vocal Competition and the People’s Choice Award, has performed throughout the United States and Latin America. He debuted with the New York City Opera in Autumn 2006, and has also sung with the Opera Orchestra of New York, and the National Symphony at Wolf Trap. His 2007 engagements include the Arizona Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, and the role of Baldassare in L’Arlesiana with the Opera Orchestra of New York. A graduate of the Juillard Opera Center, he has won numerous awards, including Opera Index, Inc., Palm Beach Opera Competition, two career grants from the Santa Fe Opera, and was a finalist for the Sara Tucker Career Grant. He is also a gifted recitalist and concert singer.

Second place winner Phandulwazi Maseti (tenor) is a graduate student at Southern Methodist University and was selected to join the newly-formed Emerging Artists Program, a partnership between The Dallas Opera and SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts. The group performed in The Dallas Opera’s 2006 Spring Touring Program, performing for audiences throughout North Texas.

Christina Major (soprano), our third place winner, has performed widely throughout the United States, and made her international debut in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay as soloist with the Dallas Symphony in Brahms’ Requiem. Critic Scott Cantrell said she “soared on high, but she also brought rare depth of tone in lower-lying phrases.” She debuted with the Fort Worth Opera in 2006 as Mimi in La Bohème opposite Stephen Costello (another AVA artist), whom we recently saw in Maria Stuarda. The Fort Worth Weekly said the pair “brought back memories of the earlier singers.” Called a “fascinating and hugely talented singer” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Christina has sung with the National Philharmonic, was a soloist for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Great American Voices Series, has sung at Carnegie Hall, and was in the Young Artists Programs with both the Santa Fe Opera the and Des Moines Metro Opera. She was also a finalist in the Sara Tucker Grant Awards.

The 2007 Vocal Competition

Each year, The Dallas Opera Guild designates honorees for the annual Vocal Competition. We are pleased to announce that our 2007 honorees are longtime Guild members, Bill and Sandra Sanderson. Please look for more information about them in the Biographies section of this newsletter.

Jonathan Pell claims that this is the best year ever, concerning the level of talent! Twenty-two singers have been selected to compete in our Semi-Final event in the afternoon of March 3rd. Winners of the Semi-Final round will advance to the Finals later that same evening, where cash prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.

Now in its 11th year, the People’s Choice Award will also be given to the singer who is most-loved by the audience — even if that singer is not deemed 1st place winner by the judges! These young competitors already display a high level of artistic achievement, as evidenced by illustrious the judge’s panel:

Christina Scheppelmann – The Washington Opera
Roberto Mauro – Michigan Opera Theater
Lenore Rosenberg – The Metropolitan Opera
Mary Jane Johnson – renowned soprano
Jonathan Pell, Artistic Director, The Dallas Opera

How can you support these young singers and help raise our competition to a new level?

1. Attend the Competition – Free and open to the public, treat yourself and invite others to join you in discovering the great new voices of tomorrow!

2. Help Fund the Prizes - The financial support we are able to give these talented singers is determined entirely by contributions from generous opera patrons and sponsors. Thanks to your support, we were able to award $16,000 in prize money last year. We wish to particularly thank Connie Kelmow, who has historically underwritten the 2nd place prize, and Bayne Blankenship, who has graciously established the 3rd prize Pat Blankenship Award in loving memory of his wife, a devoted opera lover and longtime Guild member.

All contributions will be acknowledged in the program, and can be made in honor or in memory of an individual. We sincerely thank you for your enthusiastic support of The Dallas Opera Guild’s Vocal Competition!