Susan Jean Hellman receives award
Every two years, the Young Patronesses of the Opera (YPO) sponsor a voice competition for young vocal artists. Over the years, this has become a nationally recognized event, awarding over $48,000 in prize money to the winners. This spring, The Opera Society President Barbara Parent and fellow Board officers and members Dr. Linda Balent, Barbara Copanos and Ande Bellevue Mayhue attended the finals of the competition at the Gusman Concert Hall of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
On the previous day, thirty-one young artists sang for the judges. Eleven finalists were selected: four Junior Young Artists (age 20-25) and eight Senior Young Artists (age 26-30). On the day of the final competition, we attended a lovely YPO luncheon at the Riviera Country Club and then proceeded to the concert hall.
What a wonderful day of music! Florida Grand Opera Young Artist Mr.Sidney Outlaw (Baritone) took the Senior Young Artist Grand Prize of $8,000 presented by the Junior Opera Guild which is the youth branch of the YPO. They raised these monies themselves and also presented the Junior Young Artist Grand Prize Award of $7,500 which was won by Mr. Aleksey Boganov (Baritone).
Senior Young Artist winners were as follows:
- First Prize of $6,000 donated by the YPO went to Ms. Aundi Marie Moore (Soprano)
- Second Prize of $5,000 donated by the YPO to Mr. Kevin Thompson (Bass)
- Third Prize of $4,000 donated by the YPO to Ms. Kathryn Leemhuis (Mezzo-Soprano)
- Fourth Prize of $2,500 donated by Renee Fink to Mr. Tyler Nelson (Tenor)
Junior Young Artist winners were as follows:
- First Prize of $5,000 donated by Phillip and Judy George went to Ms. Nadine Sierra (Soprano)
- Second Prize of $3,000 donated by the YPO went to Ms. Katherine Lerner (Mezzo-Soprano).
Honorable Mention Awards of $1,000 were donated by:
- Barbara Copanos and Linda Balent
- Lucie and Jay Spieler
- Isabelle and Charlette Seidel, and
- in memory of James T. Cullen
A very fun part of the day was voting for the Audience Choice Award which was shared by Tenor Sidney Outlaw and Bass Kevin Thompson.
David Yuen was on hand to videorecord the concert. Enjoy his video!
[coolplayer] http://www.theoperasociety.org/wp-content/videos/Susan_Jean_Hellman_YPO.flv [/coolplayer]