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

Where Great Opera Singers Are Discovered!
Five National Winners:
40% Are Connected
To Our Rocky Mountain Region!

 

A million congratulations to the winners of last year’s Met Opera’s Laffont Competition. Emma Marhefka, who sang and competed in our own Arizona District of the Rocky Mountain Region, was one of the winners. And Denver’s own Luke Sutliff also took home a grand prize! Two out of the five national winners have strong ties to our Rocky Mountain Region; we outperformed even the East Coast Regions! Last summer, you may have heard Emma at the Santa Fe Opera as Musetta all summer, and Luke at Central City as Figaro in Barber of Seville! Emma just had her Met mainstage debut as Papagena as well. 40% of the national winners have a strong Rocky Mountain presence! Thanks too to Ellie Caulkins, who presented one of the four $10,000 finalist awards.

Here are last year’s  GRAND FINALS WINNERS ($20,000)

Sadie Cheslak, 30, mezzo-soprano (Central Region; Duluth, Minnesota); The Birgit Nilsson Award of the American-Scandinavian Foundation
Michelle Mariposa, 30, mezzo-soprano (Middle Atlantic Region; Quezon City, Philippines); Faith P. Geier Award
Luke Sutliff, 28, baritone (Gulf Coast Region; Denver, Colorado); Dominique Laffont Award
Alissa Goretsky, 25, soprano (Midwest Region; Los Angeles, California); Fernand Lamesch Award
Emma Marhefka, 25, soprano (Rocky Mountain Region; Allentown, Pennsylvania); Patricia Misslin Award

FINALIST AWARDS ($10,000)

Abigail Raiford, 30, soprano (Eastern Region; Tulsa, Oklahoma); Ellie Caulkins Award
Angel Raii Gomez, 26, tenor (Middle Atlantic Region; McAllen, Texas); Pamela and William Craven Award
Samuel Kidd, 29, baritone (Western Region; Ann Arbor, Michigan); Margaret M. Dyson Award
Lauren Randolph, 24, mezzo-soprano (Eastern Region; Chicago, Illinois); Judith Raskin 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.

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). We are in the middle of this season with around $14,000 so far. Your involvement will help singers advance their careers!

Laffont 2026 Districts

 The Met’s Laffont Colorado/Wyoming District Competition will be held this Saturday, January 10, from 10:30 am to around 5:00 pm. Twenty-five to thirty incredible singers will compete on January 10 at 10:30 am at Wellshire Presbyterian Church, 2999 So Colorado Blvd, Denver. $10 requested donation.

Jamal Al Titi, Baritone
Ashlyn Brown, Mezzo-Soprano
Danielle Brown, Mezzo-Soprano
Lauren Bumgarner, Soprano
Anne Burgett, Soprano
Abigail Bush, Soprano
Nisha Caiozzi, Soprano
Linda Collazo, Mezzo-Soprano
Megan Ferrari, Mezzo-Soprano
Valérie Filloux, Mezzo-Soprano
Emily Gehman, Mezzo-Soprano
Changchang Hao, Soprano
Claire Iverson, Soprano
Sarah Kochevar, Soprano
Jiayu Li, Soprano
Jordan McCready, Mezzo-Soprano
Daniel Miller, Tenor
Haojin Mo, Soprano
Katiann Nelson, Mezzo-Soprano
Lucia Palladino, Soprano
Celia Pérez, Soprano
Davian Raggio, Tenor
Bridget Ravenscraft, Soprano
Rufina Robbins, Soprano
Kurt Sedlmeir, Baritone
Kevin Spooner, Bass-Baritone
Ashley Troester, Mezzo-Soprano
Yiqi Wang, Soprano
Peyton Wheeler, Mezzo-Soprano
Patrick Wilhelm, Baritone

Then on February 7 right here in Denver, the Rocky Mountain Region Finals (with winners from Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Mexico) are February 7 at 1:30 pm. Also at Wellshire Presbyterian Church, 2999 So. Colorado Blvd. $10 requested donation.

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!

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