Brandon Cedel to appear in recital with Uncle Mark Cedel

Brandon Cedel

Brandon Cedel, one of the six winners of the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a recent finalist in the Queen Sonja Vocal Competition, will be a featured soloist with the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra on Sept. 12th at 8 p.m. at Hodgson Hall. He will be appearing under the baton of Mark Cedel, who happens to be his uncle and the director of orchestral activities at Hodgson School. Both Cedels attended Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music.

The performance will kick off the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s 2013-2014 Second Thursday Scholarship Concert Series. The Cedels will present opera arias by Handel, Bellini and Rachmaninoff, as well as Suite No. 2 from Manuel de Falla’s “The Three-Cornered Hat” and Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.” 

Tickets for the performance are $18 for the general public and $5 for UGA students and are available at the UGA Performing Arts Center box office, by calling 706-542-4400 or online.

Third of finalists at Queen Sonja Competition are baritones!

Kartal Karagedik as Don Giovanni

The semi-finalists in the Queen Sonja Vocal Competition were announced with four baritones amongst the final twelve. In a competition that was heavily loaded with female voice, it was a sign of the healthy state of baritone talent that they represented a third of the singers moving ahead. 

Advancing are American Brandon Cedel, Turk Kartal Karagedik, Croatian Krešimir Stražanac and Moldavian Oleg Tilbulco. They will compete against six sopranos and two tenors. None of the five mezzos advanced.      

Brandon Cedel sings "Vi ravviso" from La Sonnambula at the George London Competition:

The Semi-final concert will occur on Sunday, August 18th at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Five finalist will move on and perform on Friday, August 23rd. That concert will also include the world premiere of new overture by Jan Erik Mikalsen, commissioned by Queen Sonja International Music Competition with support from the Norwegian Arts Council.

The other singers advancing are soprano Julia Maria Dan, soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan, soprano Nina Minasian, Soprano Emma Moore, tenor Sergey Radchenko, soprano Mélissa Petit, soprano Hamida Kristoffersen, and the highly entertaining tenor Andrew Stenson. 


Both archived and live concerts can be watched on live streaming HERE.

Queen Sonja Vocal Competition to be live streamed

Erik Anstine

The Queen Sonja Vocal Competition will be live streamed from Oslo on Thursday, Friday & Saturday. Many of our favorite barihunks, including Dawid Kimberg, Joseph KyungTeak Lim, Erik Anstine and Brandon Cedel will be competing.

Over 200 singers from 45 countries applied this year for the 41 slots. There is a maximum of four singers from each participating nation, and twelve of the contestants are nominated from their collaborating opera academies: The Lindemann Young Artists Program, Metropolitan Opera, New York; The Jette Parker Young Artists Program, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London; The Opera Studio, Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Internationales Operastudio, Opernhaus Zürich, Zürich; Young Artists Program, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow; The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Brandon Cedel

The panel of judges includes many of the greatest names in opera, including soprano Carol Vaness, mezzo-soprano Dame Felicity Palmer, baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Kasper Holten. Although the final 41 is heavily weighted toward the sopranos, we are confident that one of the low voices will keep the baritone winning streak alive in international vocal competitions.

Watch the live stream HERE.