Metropolitan Opera Auditions | Colorado-Wyoming-Utah-Arizona-Mexico

Where Great Opera Singers Are Discovered!
We are thrilled to announce our 2026 Laffont Competition Grand Finals Winners and
National Finalists:

 

GRAND FINALS WINNERS ($20,000)    from left to right: Natal-Báez, Hanje, Lee, Crowley, Wente, Thompson

Anna Thompson, 26, soprano (Middle Atlantic Region; Rochester, Michigan); The Birgit Nilsson Award of the American-Scandinavian Foundation

Song Hee Lee, 28, soprano (Eastern Region; Seoul, South Korea); Pamela and William Craven Award

Elizabeth Hanje, 23, soprano (Northwest Region; Vestavia Hills, Alabama); Margaret M. Dyson Award

Gabriel Natal-Báez, 27, baritone (Gulf Coast Region; Toa Alta, Puerto Rico); Dominique Laffont Award

Robert Wente, 26, baritone (Central Region; Munster, Indiana); Fernand Lamesch Award

Shannon Crowley, 25, soprano (Great Lakes Region; Virginia Beach, Virginia); Patricia Misslin Award

FINALIST AWARDS ($10,000)

Shiyu Zhuo, 26, soprano (Eastern Region; Zhejiang, China); Ellie Caulkins Award

Sophia Baete, 23, mezzo-soprano (Eastern Region; Louisville, Kentucky); Margaret M. Dyson Award

Dejah Watts, 22, soprano (Central Region; Indianapolis, Indiana); Judith Raskin Award

Gabrielle Turgeon, 25, soprano (Rocky Mountain Region; Boynton Beach, Florida); Anne de Richemont Smithers Award

 

Here is our 2024 Rocky Mountain Region winner, Emma Marhefka, who went on to win the Grand National Finals in New York on March 9 and then make our Lindemann program. To get there, on February 8, she first won the Rocky Mountain Region Finals.

Since then, Emma has gone on to spend the entire summer season at Santa Fe starring as Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and most recently Juliet at Opera Theater of St Louis!

 

This past year, our expenses added up to $26,000, similar to previous years. And that’s where you come in! We made our goal last year. Our goal is $26,000 for our annual expenses plus $5000 to rebuild our rainy-day fund post-COVID.  ($31,000 total). 

Announcing the 2027 Competitions!

2/6/27 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Laffont District Competition, Wellshire Presbyterian Church, 2999 So. Colorado Blvd, Denver

2/13/27 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.  Laffont Rocky Mountain Region Finals, Calvary Baptist Church, 6500 E Girard Ave,  Denver

National Semifinals, New York,  Sunday, March 14, 2027

Grand Finals Concert, New York,  Sunday, March 21, 2027

Laffont 2026 Region Final

 

Support the Rocky Mountain Region: Donate Now!

Donations to our organization provide prize monies for award winners and support the costs incurred in hosting both the Colorado-Wyoming District and Rocky Mountain Region rounds of the Competition. It is important to note that even though the Colorado-Wyoming District and Rocky Mountain Region are officially sanctioned by The Metropolitan Opera and feed the national competition finals, we do not receive any funding from the national office. All funds needed for the Colorado based competitions must be raised locally through the generous donations of individual opera lovers like you.

We are very serious about doing everything we can to keep this Competition open to our local and regional singers. Philadelphia, a major District and home of the Curtis Institute, had to close its doors for a time. Let’s not allow this to happen here!

If you are not yet on our email list and wish be added to our subscriber list, please email us at bruggenthies@comcast.net.

 

ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE 2026 ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION! 💫

Gabrielle Turgeon, Soprano (won the National Semifinals!)
Juan Carlos Villalobos Ayala, Bass (Competed in the National Semifinals!)
THIRD PLACE:
Ashlyn Brown, Mezzo-Soprano
ENCOURAGEMENT AWARDS:

Javier Esau Alvarez Rodriguez, Baritone
Sophia Maekawa, Mezzo-Soprano

Congratulations to all of the Rocky Mountain Region Singers!