Nine Baritones Competing in Met Auditions in NYC

The Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions will be held at Merkin Hall in New York City on November 18 and 19. This year, nine of the 82 singers are baritones, including SeokJong Baek, Vladimir Tsyglian, Robert Balonek, LaMarcus Miller, Kidon Choi, Takaoki Onishi, Ryan Torino, Anthony Caputo and Cameron McPhail.

A number of the singers have appeared on Barihunks, including Takaoki Onishi who we introduced to readers in May 2014, Robert Balonek who we featured in our Met Auditions overview earlier this year and Cameron MacPhail who is in our recent post about upcoming Messiahs (he's performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra).

The singers will perform before judges Susan Ashbaker, Richard Bernstein and Cori Ellison for a spot in the Region Finals to be held on January 14, 2015. The judges for the Finals will be Gayletha Nichols, Richard Bado and Susan Graham.

Cameron McPhail

Canadian baritone Cameron McPhail was the 2014 winner of the George London Foundation Competition. He joined the Canadian Opera Company for the 2012-13 season as a member of the Ensemble Studio where he made his company debut as Premiere Officer in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites. During the 2013-14 season he returned to Canadian Opera Company with mainstage appearances as Schaunard in La Bohème, Guglielmo in Così fan Tutte, and Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera.

Robert Balonek

Robert Balonek attended SUNY Purchase College and the Mannes School of Music. During his two years at Mannes he performed Guglielmo in Cosi Fan Tutte as well as ​Ford in Falstaff. He also performed with the Mannes Baroque Ensemble as the bass soloist for the Bach's St. Matthew Passion and the Fauré Requiem soloist for the Westchester Choral Society.  In 2014, he performed in scenes from Le Chevalier Saint George's L'amant Anonyme with the Little Opera Theater of NY, Paul Revere in the Boston Tea Party Opera at the NY Fringe Festival and Castro in Victor Herbert's only grand opera, Natoma.

LaMarcus Miller

In 2012, LaMarcus Miller won First Place at the Nico Castel International Master Singer Competition at Carnegie Hall. That same year he won the Encouragement Award at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition (Eastern Region). He made his Kennedy Center Center debut singing the leading role of USMC Philip in the new Opera “Fallujah” by Tobin Stokes & Heather Raffo.
In August, he performed Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with the Sugar Creek Symphony.

Anthony Caputo

New York City native Anthony Caputo recently completed his Graduate work at SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Music where he studied under the tutelage of Jacque Trussel. While there he performed Balthazar and Melchior in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Antonio in Mozart's La Nozze di Figaro, Mercurio in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Prince Ferdinand in the East Coast Premiere of Holby's The Tempest, Father Francis in the World Premiere of Lucas' Confession, Pappageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Le Directeur in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tiresias, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen and Pandolfe in Massenet's Cendrillon.

Vladimir Tsyglian

Canadian Vladimir Tsyglian earned his Performance Degree from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He was a 1st Prize winner in the Concert Recital category at the Kiwanis Music Fesival. He made his professional debut in the world premiere of "A Dickens of a Christmas." He recently performed Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen with Opera by Request in Toronto.

Takaoki Onishi

Takaoki Onishi won the Top Prize in the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and the First Prize in both the Opera Index, Inc. Vocal Competition and the Licia Albanese - Puccini International Vocal Competition. He also received a prize in the 2013 Loren L. Zachary Competition, as well as two Grants from the Giulio Gari Foundation.  He made his Lincoln Center debut in the Julliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital at Alice Tully Hall. In February, he performed the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with Julliard Opera and in March he performed Jesus in Bach's St. Matthew's Passion.

Kidon Choi

Kidon Choi is a first-year Master's student at Manhattan School of Music and a recipient of the Joseph F. McCrindle Scholarship. He completed his B.M. in vocal performance at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea. In April 2013, Choi made his Sejong Art Center debut with Seoul Metropolitan Opera as Amonasro in Verdi's Aida. Choi released his own CD ‘Soar’ with Sony Music Entertainment.

Ryan Torino and SeokJong Baek

We don't have bios for Ryan Torino and SeokJong Baek.

Suggested admission to the Metropolitan Opera District Auditions is $20.  You are welcome to attend both days and come and go as you please. Tickets are available online.

Make sure to order you 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar today. Each year, the money raised from the calendar goes to support young artists like those featured above. This year's calendar features 19 of the hottest singers in opera today. Order by clicking below.