CCM announces the winners of its 2022 Opera Scholarship Competition

Twenty-three current and incoming students competed for five coveted full-tuition scholarships and $50,000 in additional awards during CCM's 2022 Opera Scholarship Competition.

Since its inauguration in 1976, this annual competition welcomes current and incoming CCM voice students to compete for scholarships and cash prizes. A panel of judges composed of opera industry professionals selects each year’s class of prizewinners.

Five students won awards in this year’s competition, which was conducted Saturday, March 12, 2022, in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium.

Ryan Wolfe, baritone, currently first-year Artist Diploma student from Arlington Heights, Illinois; studying at CCM with Elliot Madore 
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Corbett Award ($15,000) 
The Corbett Award is supported by the Corbett Foundation in cooperation with CCM.

Anna Kelly, mezzo soprano, incoming Artist Diploma student from Decatur, Georgia; currently studying at Yale School of Music with Adriana Zabala 
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Andrew White Memorial Award ($10,000)  
This award is supported by the Andrew White Memorial Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.

Erik Nordstrom, baritone, currently a second-year Master of Music and incoming Artist Diploma student from St. Paul, Minnesota; studying at CCM with Tom Baresel 
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the John Alexander Memorial Award ($10,000)  
This award is supported by the John Alexander Memorial Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.

Jazmine Saunders, soprano, incoming Master of Music student from Rochester, New York; currently studying at Eastman School of Music with Robert Swensen 
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Seybold-Russell Award ($8,000)  
This award is supported by the Seybold-Russell Scholarship Fund in cooperation with CCM.

Helaine Liebman, soprano, incoming Doctor of Musical Arts student from Highland Park, Illinois; currently studying at Northwestern Bienen School of Music with Pamela Hinchman 
Prize: Full-tuition scholarship and the Italo Tajo/Newburger Memorial Award ($7,000)  
This award is supported by the Italo Tajo Memorial Scholarship Fund (established by Mr. Tajo’s wife Inelda Tajo) in cooperation with CCM.

The judges panel for CCM’s 2021 Opera Scholarship Competition included:

• Daniel Biaggi, opera executive and producer at Biaggi Arts Consulting and former Artistic Administrator and General Director of Palm Beach Opera  
• Michelle DeYoung, multi-Grammy award winning recording artist and international mezzo soprano
• Jessica Mallow Gulley, arts executive and executive director at the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra  

Declared a top college vocal program by Backstage Magazine and described as “one of the continent’s major music schools,” by the Toronto Star, CCM’s Departments of Opera and Voice provide one of the most comprehensive training programs for opera singers, coaches and directors in the United States. CCM offers an international faculty of dedicated educators who are also celebrated professionals in their own right, widely and currently active in their respective fields.

CCM sends its students out into the profession. Several national opera companies now hold auditions at the conservatory, and the Opera Department also hosts a series of informational talks by nationally renowned professionals working both in America and in Europe. CCM students frequently advance to the final rounds of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and CCM graduates have performed on the stages of the world’s greatest opera companies, including Cincinnati Opera, the Metropolitan Opera (New York), Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera (London), La Scala (Italy), and more.

Featured image at the top: A scene from CCM's 2021 production of The Marriage of Figaro. Photo by Mark Lyons.