Sean Michael Plumb, Josh Quinn, Anthony Schneider and Erik Larson.
What if you held a song competition and no one knew about it? That seems to be the case with this year's Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. They held a competition last week and haven't posted the results, nor sent out a press release. We have an inquiry pending with them to find out the results and will update this post, as over $200,000 in prizes were handed out for lied, opera and a special Wagner division.
Fortunately, thanks to social media we've learned that barihunk Sean Michael Plumb won one of the top prizes, Josh Quinn took Third Prize and Anthony Schneider and Erik Larson both won Encouragement Awards.
Last year baritones won a number of prizes, including Reginald Smith Jr. who won the Gerda Lissner Foundation Top Prize and first prize honorees Michael Adams, Jared Bybee, Patrick Guetti, Sol Jin and John Viscardi.
ORDER YOUR BARIHUNKS CALENDAR TODAY AND SUPPORT THE CREATION OF A FOUNDATION SUPPORTING LOW VOICES AND RELATED PROJECTS!
John Brancy: On left from website, on right from Twitter feed
This must be the week of launching new websites, as John Brancy joins Wes Mason in getting a new site up and running. Brancy is one of a slew of barihunks who have been impressing judges at vocal competitions lately. He is a recent winner of the Sullivan Foundation Grand Prize and career grant, took 1st Prize at the Classical Singer Magazine Competition, and received the Gold Award for Voice at the YoungArts Foundation competition. He is a 2nd Place winner in the Gerda Lissner and Liederkranz competitions, and 3rd place winner in the 2012 Montreal International Music Competition. Check out his website HERE.
Brancy performs the role of Papageno at the prestigious Music Academy of the West this summer in Santa Barbara. From June 11-19 he'll be at Le Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris performing John Adam's "I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky." He also has upcoming performances at Oper Frankfurt, Gotham Chamber Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, Saskatoon Symphony and Regina Symphony.
You won't find sexy pictures like those on Wes Mason's site, but there is a generous supply of audio of video to enjoy. Like most young singers who are serious about a career, Brancy has a strong presence on social media. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnBrancy, Facebook and YouTube.
If you haven't heard Sidney Outlaw perform yet, do we have a deal for you. We attended his recital in San Francisco and it was one of the most amazing performances by a young artist that we'd seen in some time. If you're in New York this weekend, you can hear him as part of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation Recital series. Tickets are $15, but if you mention Barihunks, you'll get the student/senior rate of $10. Trust us, this is a talent that you won't want to miss.
Outlaw will be joined by soprano Adrienne Danrich and accompanist Thomas Bagwell on Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 3:00pm at Christ & St. Stephen's Church, 120 West 69th Street in New York City. The program will feature music by Brahms, Duparc, Rachmaninov and a rare performance of Francis Poulenc's La Dame de Monte Carlo.
The North Carolina native was the 2010 Grand Prize winner of the Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballé and recently made his debut with the English National Opera as Rambo in John Adams’s Death of Klinghoffer. He was a member of the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco where he stole the show as Dr.Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore.
Outlaw’s other awards include Second Prize in the 2011 Gerda Lissner Foundation Awards, national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, semi-finalist in the Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition, finalist for both the Concours International Musical de Montréal and the George London Competition, and grand prize at the Florida Grand Opera/YPO Vocal Competition. Mr. Outlaw holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from The Juilliard School and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Upcoming engagements include Telemann’s Orpheus with New York City Opera and the role of Don Giovanni at Aix-en-Provence.
There are few things that we enjoy more than our "Reader Submission" feature. Over the years, we've been introduced to some of the most amazing talent and absolute eye candy from across the globe. We've had submissions come from as far away as Belarus and Indonesia, from boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, ex-lovers, men and women ranging from teenagers to people who reminisce about having seen Gina Cigna (look her up!) and even a number of proud moms. Gotta love those proud moms!
Our latest reader submissions are Nate Jones and Kyle Albertson.
Nate Jones is a 25-year-old lyric baritone who is a third-year student at Duke Divinity School. He's graduating in May with a Masters Degree. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Duke in 2009 and has been studying voice primarily with Elizabeth Linnartz.
Below are two videos from Nate Jones' Graduate Recital from 3/24/12 at Duke University
In 2009, he won the Schloss-Mirabell competition in Salzburg, where he
performed a concert of Schumann and Mozart in the Mozart Festival, while
also playing Figaro. He also has won the National Association for the
Teaching of Singing (NATS) competition at the state and regional levels.
He won a full scholarship to the American Singers Opera Project, where
he played Don Alfonso in "Cosi fan Tutte," and studied voice with
Sherrill Milnes' ex-wife, Nancy Stokes-Milnes.
Jones originally planned on going into doctoral work in theology/philosophy but has recently decided to go into opera full-time and plans on auditioning for some young artist programs.
Jones has been active with Long Leaf Opera in North Carolina, most recently singing Clay in Chandler Carter's "Strange Fruit" and Valentine in Joel Feigin's "The Twelfth Night." He also played the title role in "Sweeney Todd" at Duke.
Kyle Anderson
When we recently posted about the winners at the Gerda Lissner International Singing Competition we sure heard about the prize winners who we omitted (including one of our longtime favorites Dan Kempson). One singer who is new to us and who took a second place cash award is Kyle Albertson.
Albertson is a former participant in the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program. He has gone on to sing Leporello in Don Giovanni, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Henry Kissinger in Nixon in China. Blitch in Susannah, Mephistopheles in Faust, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, and the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffman.
Current and upcoming engagements include covering the roles of Bretigny in Manon, Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro, Masetto in Don Giovanni, and the Jailer in Dialogues des carmélites at the Metropolitan Opera.
Barihunks continue to take top prizes at international vocal competition, as Scott Conner, Steven LaBrie and Ricardo Rivera won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place at the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. We hope that this string of victories lays to rest the internet chatter that barihunks are all looks and no voice.
Steven LaBrie
Two of the singers have links to the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Conner is a third year resident artist and LaBrie is a fourth year resident artist. Rivera is a young artist with the Mannes Opera program
The Gerda Lissner Foundation was created by Mrs. Lissner, a Metropolitan Opera subscriber for 77 years, to provide young opera singers with the financial support they need to pursue their craft and excel in the world of Opera. The three winners were awarded $10,000, $5,000 and $3,000. Barihunks would like to wish them continued success with their careers.
The Grand Prize of $15,000 was won by tenor Paul Appleby.
