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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
