Soprano Rochelle Bard, first-place winner of the 2007 AudComps Professional Division, is performing Micaela in Carmen with Ash Lawn Opera this summer. For two seasons she was a Resident Artist with Opera San José, where she was an acclaimed success singing the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, and as Gilda in Rigoletto, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Violetta in La traviata and Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly. Upcoming performances include the title role in The Merry Widow with the Altamura Center, Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Idaho, Musetta in La bohème with Sacramento Opera, and the Foreign Princess in Rusalka with Boston Lyric Opera.
Leading U.S. opera houses have engaged soprano Dana Beth Miller (first-place winner of the 2006 AudComps Professional Division), including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Dallas Opera, Seattle Opera, and Cincinnati Opera, among many others. Miller now enters the next phase of her career as a mezzo-soprano, preparing such roles as Carmen, Dalila, Princess Eboli in Don Carlo, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, and Amneris in Aida. Her 2008-09 season includes a debut with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall as Margared in Lalo’s Le roi d’Ys, another debut with Cleveland Opera as both the Mother and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, Verdi’s Requiem with the Tulsa Philharmonic and Oratorio Chorus, and a return to Austin Lyric Opera to sing Mere Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites.
Sergio Blazquez, first place winner of the 2005 AudComps Professional Division, has stayed busy singing in Switzerland, Prague, and Germany. Performances include the main roles of Lucia di Lammermoor, Werther, Der Rosenkavalier, La bohème, La traviata, and Manon, among others. Blazquez made his Carnegie Hall debut in December 2007 singing the role of Jacopo (cover) and had the pleasure of working with the great conductor Eve Queller. He made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in April of this year, sharing the stage with the great soprano Edita Gruberova and debuted with the Munich Philharmonic in July.
Since winning the first Classical Singer Competition (now the AudComps) in 2004, countertenor Mark Crayton’s career has exploded. His credits include six different recital tours across Europe and America, two different productions of Handel’s Giulio Cesare, 16 Messiah performances (including performances at Symphony Center in Chicago and Avery Fisher Hall in New York), international debuts of three new song cycles of music for countertenor and piano by composers Ronald William Hill, Gregory Peebles, and David W. Solomon, and international debuts of music for two countertenors and piano (with Daniel Gundlach, countertenor and James Janssen, piano). Other achievements include four Carmina Burana performances, nine performances of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, as well a new teaching position at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.
Crayton’s future endeavors include three recitals tours and two additional projects: a concert tour of Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus and Stabat Mater, and performances of the Britten Canticles with Matthew Chellis, Richard Stilwell, and Dana Brown. Crayton is responsible for 16 singers per semester at Roosevelt University, including six countertenors this coming year. He has also added “maestro” to his many titles, recently conducting performances of Reinhard Keiser’s Markus Passion, and he is looking forward to conducting Carl Heinrich Graun’s Der Tod Jesu next season.
