CCM announces the winners of its 2022 Opera Scholarship Competition
Singers competed for five full-tuition scholarships and $50,000 in additional awards
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.
The Winners of CCM’s 2022 Opera Scholarship Competition
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
About CCM Opera/Voice
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.
Additional Contacts
Curt Whitacre | Director of Marketing/Communications | UC College-Conservatory of Music
whitaccp@ucmail.uc.edu | 513-556-2683
Related Stories
When grief doesn't end: Nursing PhD students bring a classroom theory to Ohio families
October 29, 2026
Most of us think of grief as something with an ending. A loss happens, it hurts, and over time the hurt fades. For many parents of children with developmental disabilities, it doesn't work that way. The sadness can quiet down for months or years and then come back. It might return on the first day of kindergarten, at a cousin's wedding, at a high school graduation, or on the day a young adult ages out of school services. Nurses and researchers have a name for this: chronic sorrow. Last October, two University of Cincinnati College of Nursing PhD students helped bring that name to a room of families, people with disabilities and the professionals who support them.
UC student's NFL internship leads to $20,000 gift to reduce loan burden
October 29, 2026
University of Cincinnati athletic training graduate student Savannah Posey interned with the Buffalo Bills during training camp and received a surprise $20,000 gift toward her student loans from safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson through his Ceedy Cares Foundation.
UC celebrates a century of Homecoming with a parade, pride and signature win over Texas Tech
October 28, 2026
The University of Cincinnati celebrated it's 100th Homecoming. The Cincinnati Bearcats defeated No. 8-ranked Texas Tech, 37-24, before a sell-out audience in Nippert Stadium. Photos of Homecoming activities show Bearcats Pride at its finest.