116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Singers vying for prizes in Cedar Rapids Opera competition
Public invited to see Saturdays semifinal- and final round in Esther & Myron Wilson Vocal Competition
CEDAR RAPIDS — One opera performer will leave the Paramount Theatre with $20,000 on Saturday night, Aug. 31, 2024.
But everyone will walk away a winner, as nine performers vie for a piece of more than $50,000 in prize money from Cedar Rapids Opera’s Esther & Myron Wilson Vocal Competition.
So they won’t just be singing into the darkness, the public is invited to experience the semifinal round from 2 to 4 p.m. and the final round from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the theater’s elegant main auditorium, 123 Third Ave. SE.
In addition to being a way to honor the memory of the late Esther Wilson and celebrate the ongoing philanthropy of Myron “Mike” Wilson of Cedar Rapids, whose $100,000 gift financed the competition, the event, which drew 485 applicants, also is designed to recognize great singing and boost the careers of promising artists, as well as introduce the community to opera singers and arias outside of a full-blown stage production.
If you go
What: Cedar Rapids Opera presents Esther & Myron Wilson Vocal Competition
Where: Paramount Theatre, 123 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids
When: Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024; semifinal round, 2 to 4 p.m.; final round 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Tickets: $30 general admission; $10 student; $50 VIP reserved seating in the loge; artsiowa.com/tickets/concerts/wilson-vocal-competition/
Details: cropera.org/wilson-vocal-competition
“It’s not ‘Tosca.’ You’re not going to see ‘Butterfly.’ It is a whole different way of looking at singing, and I’m hoping that more people in the community will want to partake of that,” said Daniel Kleinknecht, Cedar Rapids Opera’s founder and musical director.
The event, touted as one of the year’s top U.S. vocal competitions, also has created a silent roar for Cedar Rapids Opera, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in the 2022-23 season.
“This competition has helped put Cedar Rapids on the map in the real way that we don't necessarily see or will not understand. It’s one of those silent successes that I would say are in the world, but we might not know it,” Kleinknecht said.
He likened it to fourth grade teachers who might not see the long-term benefits of their work until a student “goes out into the world and creates something in their lives.”
“Sometimes the benefits are not immediate. But for 485 people, plus all of the pianists who played for their auditions, and all of the teachers and all of the coaches, this really struck the heart of the singing world.”
Need proof? Virtual applications came from 41 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and eight foreign countries, including Armenia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia and South Africa. The majority were sopranos and mezzos, but tenors, baritones and basses stepped up, as well as a countertenor, a male voice that can sing as high as a mezzo or soprano, and he was named one of the semifinalists.
Thaddeus Ennen, the opera theater’s general director, and board member Abigail Rethwisch, a professional opera singer, joined Kleinknecht in narrowing the digital applications to 50. Some of the applicants were too young, and some were over-qualified, so the team focused on the rest.
They handed off their 50 choices to three nationally-known opera professionals Kleinknecht described as “distinguished adjudicators,” including Sigourney native Katharine Goeldner, who performs internationally and has appeared with Cedar Rapids Opera in “Carmen,” “The Barber of Seville” and “Salome”; Jane Dutton, a voice professor at Indiana University in Bloomington; and Martin Katz from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, hailed by the New York Times as “the gold standard of accompanists.”
They trimmed the field to the nine semifinalists who are traveling to Cedar Rapids for in-person final rounds before judges Steven White, a distinguished opera conductor and artistic director of Opera Roanoke in Virginia; Julia Faulkner, director of vocal studies at the Chicago Lyric Opera’s Ryan Opera Center for emerging artists, who has served as a master clinician for the Cedar Rapids Opera’s Young Artists Program; and Peter Randsman of New York, an artist manager Kleinknecht said has “a distinct roster of opera singers and has a great ear for voice.”
“All around, we’ve been really fortunate to have great ears” to judge the applicants, Kleinknecht said.
One more set of judges will come from Saturday’s audience members, who will vote for the Musical Theater Audience Favorite Award of $1,750.
In the afternoon session, the candidates will sing an aria of their choice, followed by an aria the judges will choose from each person’s submitted repertoire. After the dinner break, the final five will then sing two more arias chosen by the judges. While the judges deliberate the rankings, the other four who didn’t move to the finals will sing a popular song or musical theater song for the audience choice award.
Monetary prizes are $20,000 first place; $12,000 second place; $6,000 third place; $4,000 fourth place; $2,000 fifth place; $1,750 audience favorite; and $1,500 for each of the three runners-up.
The candidates are: Edward Brennan, tenor, New Lenox, Ill.; Edward Graves, tenor, Oxon Hill, Md.; Chuanyuan Liu, countertenor, Louisa, Va.; Amy Maples, soprano, Golden, Colo.; Jana McIntyre, soprano, Tulsa, Okla.; Brian James Myer, baritone, Philadelphia; Gemma Nha, soprano, Chicago; Jeremiah Sanders, baritone, Minneapolis; and Emily Secor, soprano, Decorah.
Kleinknecht didn’t know the chosen semifinalists until the list was announced, but he was pleased to note that Brennan is past member of Cedar Rapids Opera’s Young Artists Program and Secor has performed extensively with Luther College in Decorah and the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. “And some folks with local ties made it through the first big wave,” he added.
Kleinknecht has been kicking around this competition idea for about a decade, and is thrilled to see it come to fruition. He will be equally thrilled to recognize Wilson for his willingness to finance the project with funds that not only cover the prizes, but the judges’ travel and hotel accommodations and the project’s various administrative and production aspects.
“I feel a great sense of satisfaction,” Kleinknecht said, “like what I typically feel about Cedar Rapids, which is very positive, that the community comes through every time. When we make requests that are reasonable to get money for this or that, the community comes through.”
In announcing the project last fall, he said: “The competition is basically a new way for us to live our mission by supporting the artists who create opera. We've done a decent job of bringing up the fees we pay to young artists, and we haven't done such a great job with established artists. This is a way for us to support singers who are in their midcareer and above.”
The winners can use the money however they wish, which is especially important when so many artists couldn’t perform during the pandemic. The prizes are resume builders, as well, he noted.
Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com
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