Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is proud to announce the eight finalists for this year’s Concert of Arias, the 35th Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, to be presented live from the Wortham Theater Center on February 3, 2023, at 7 p.m. CT.

The highly anticipated competition is held annually to identify candidates for HGO’s internationally acclaimed young artist training program, the HGO Studio. The selected finalists will have the opportunity to learn more about HGO and work with company music staff leading up to the Concert of Arias, during which they will perform two arias each, competing for up to $10,000 in cash prizes.

The 2023 Concert of Arias finalists include:

· Samuel Kidd, baritone

· Ani Kushyan, mezzo-soprano

· Natalie Lewis, mezzo-soprano

· Emma Marhefka, soprano

· Michael McDermott, tenor

· Demetrious Sampson, Jr., tenor

· Gosh Sargsyan, bass

· Gabrielle Turgeon, soprano

The live event is the final stage of the competition that brings young singers from all over the world to Houston. Each finalist performs two arias from the opera repertoire for a panel of esteemed judges. The distinguished judges for this year’s competition include guest judge and Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor, and HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers.

“Concert of Arias represents our commitment to fostering the next generation of opera stars, and to advancing the art form by honing their already tremendous talents,” says Dastoor. “HGO has been training, inspiring, and mentoring brilliant emerging artists for careers in opera for 45 years—careers that have altered the trajectory of opera itself. We are proud that the beginning of that journey starts with this exhilarating competition.”  

Houston Grand Opera will present the competition to a live audience in the Wortham’s Cullen Theater, and the event will be livestreamed through HGO Digital and HGO’s social platforms. The evening’s livestream host is HGO Studio alumna Nicole Heaston. Heaston will entertain online viewers and keep audiences apprised of all the action happening behind-the-scenes. HGO Artistic Advisor and soprano Ana María Martínez will select the Encouragement Award, an award she created eight years ago to celebrate artists developing their craft.

The in-person audience will get a chance to vote for the Audience Choice Award, and livestream viewers have the opportunity to vote for their favorite singer in the Online Viewers’ Choice Award. The evening ends with the announcement of the six coveted prizes: First, Second, and Third place, the Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award, the Audience Choice Award, and the Online Viewers’ Choice Award.

“It’s been wonderful getting to know this diverse group of passionate young singers,” says HGO Studio Director Brian Speck. “I cannot wait for audiences to discover their gifts. Their voices inspire; they fill the heart; they are the thrilling future of this art form itself. I am so proud to be a part of this company as we enter the 35th year of this competition.”

This year’s Concert of Arias is graciously chaired by Rita Leader and Glen Rosenbaum. Proceeds from the evening benefit the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers and the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

This year’s semifinalists included: Georgia Belmont, soprano; Emma Marhefka, soprano; Olivia Heaner, soprano; Gabrielle Turgeon, soprano; Ani Kushyan, mezzo-soprano; Natalie Lewis, mezzo-soprano; Michael McDermott, tenor; Demetrious Sampson, Jr., tenor; Samuel Kidd, baritone; Mario Cesar Manzo, baritone; Ihor Mostovoi, baritone; James McCarthy, bass-baritone; and Yue Wu, bass-baritone; Gosh Sargsyan, bass.

Since its inception 45 years ago, the HGO Studio has grown into one of the most respected young artist programs in the world. Each of the artists in the HGO Studio has access to a learning environment that emphasizes practical experience within the professional opera world. This includes regular coaching sessions with industry professionals, roles in HGO mainstage productions, recital performances, and a variety of other concert engagements.

2023 Concert of Arias Finalist Biographies:

SAMUEL KIDD

Baritone

Baritone Samuel Kidd is a 2017 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy. A gifted recital and art song performer, he recently appeared with the Cincinnati Song Initiative performing Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. Recent operatic highlights include Belcore in The Elixir of Love with Yale Opera and the title role in Eugene Onegin at Music Academy of the West. This season at Yale, he will perform Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia. In April 2021, he participated in the Caramoor Rising Star program, directed and curated by Steven Blier. He was also featured in the New York Festival of Song's online season in September 2020. As an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, he gave two performances of Schubert's Winterreise, as well as Mahler's Kindertotenlieder with the University Symphony Orchestra. A graduate of University of Michigan and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Kidd is a second-year Master of Musical Arts student in opera performance at Yale University under the tutelage of Gerald Martin Moore.

ANI KUSHYAN

Mezzo-Soprano

Georgian mezzo-soprano Ani Kushyan has been a member of the Young Artists Program at Armenian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet since August 2021. She made her debut with the company in 2021-22 season as Third Girl in Anoush by Armenian composer Armen Tigranyan. Other roles include Marta in Iolanta, Lyubasha in The Tsar’s Bride, and Anoush’s mother in Anoush. As an active concert performer, she has appeared in Germany, Latvia, Sweden, Estonia, Georgia, and Armenia. She was named first prize winner in the 2022 Premiere Opera Foundation Vocal Competition, a bronze medalist in the 2021 CIS Delphic Games, the audience prize winner at the SOI Fiorenza Cedolins competition in Italy, and the first prize winner in the 2021 Armenian Romanciade. Kushyan received her bachelor’s degree from the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory and her master’s degree from the Tbilisi State Conservatory in Georgia. She continued her studies at the Riga Jāzepa Vītola Latvian Music Academy and the Lübeck Academy of Music in Germany.

NATALIE LEWIS

Mezzo-Soprano

Mezzo-soprano Natalie Lewis is a 2021 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy. Hailed for her “velvet mezzo-soprano sonic cushion” (San Diego Story) and her “sly lyricism” (Opera News), she was a 2022 Renee Fleming Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, where she performed Mistress Quickly in Falstaff alongside Sir Bryn Terfel in the title role. Other roles include Third Lady in The Magic Flute and Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro. Recently, Lewis won the New York District round of The Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition. Upcoming appearances include the roles of Zita (Gianni Schicchi) and La Zia Principessa (Suor Angelica) in Juilliard Opera Theater’s Puccini double bill, as well as her Carnegie Hall debut in April 2023, singing the alto solos in Marianna Martines’s Dixit Dominus and Bela Bartok’s Three Village Scenes. This summer she will attend the Merola Opera Program to perform the title role in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia.  

EMMA MARHEFKA

Soprano

Soprano Emma Marhefka made her professional debut last season singing Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Tampa. She appeared as a Studio Artist with Wolf Trap Opera and sang the role of Younger Alyce in Glory Denied with Knoxville Opera, a role she will reprise with Opera Roanoke in February 2023. She is a two-time Encouragement Award winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. A winner of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s Corbett Competition, Marhefka sang Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at CCM, garnering praise for her “lyrical and expressive” singing. This spring she will perform the role of Mary Johnson in Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers. During her undergraduate studies, Marhefka created the role of Valeria in the world premiere of Tom Cipullo’s Mayo and performed with the Janiec Opera Company at Brevard. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Crane School of Music at SUNY-Potstam, and will complete her Master of Music at CCM this spring.

MICHAEL MCDERMOTT

Tenor

Tenor Michael McDermott is a 2021 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy. He recently returned to the Aspen Music Festival for a second summer, covering the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. At The Juilliard School in New York, he performed the roles of Spärlich in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor and Filippo in Hadyn’s L’infedelta Delusa, as well as appearing in liederabends and recitals coached by Brian Zeger and Pierre Vallet. His recent competition wins include first prize in the 2021 Schmidt Vocal Competition and first prize in the Scholarship Division of the National Opera Association’s Carolyn Bailey Argento Competition. McDermott received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and is currently pursuing his master's degree at Rice University studying with Robin Rice. 

DEMETRIOUS SAMPSON, JR.

Tenor

Demetrious Sampson, Jr. is a rising tenor from Georgia. A 2022 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy, he made his professional debut with Atlanta Opera at the age of 20 as Crab Man in Porgy and Bess, a role he reprised at Des Moines Metro Opera in summer 2022 as an apprentice artist. At Georgia State University, he has performed the roles of Vanderdendur in Candide and the title role in John Musto’s Bastianello. A previous Encouragement Award winner, he recently won the Georgia District in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and will compete in the Southeast Region Finals later this month. This spring Sampson will receive his bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University, where he studies with Kathryn Hartgrove.

GOSH SARGSYAN

Bass

Bass Gosh Sargsyan is an active concert and opera performer in his native Armenia, and a member of the Young Artists Program of the Armenian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. He made his company debut in 2021 as Qyoxva in Anush by Armenian composer Armen Tigranyan. Additional roles include Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni. He is a first prize winner in the International “Renaissance” vocal competition in Gyumri, Armenia, and was a semifinalist in the 2022 International Lyric Competition in Rome, Italy. Sargsyan received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan, where he studied with world-famous baritone Gevorg Hakobyan.

GABRIELLE TURGEON

Soprano

American/Canadian soprano Gabrielle Turgeon is an alumnus of both the Aspen Music Festival and School and the 2022 HGO Young Artists’ Vocal Academy. Turgeon was a 2020 YoungArts National Finalist and a 2022 finalist in the Schmidt Vocal Arts Undergraduate Awards. Performance highlights this year include Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem (Orpheus Choir of Toronto) and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (Chorus Niagara). Recent operatic and musical theater roles have included Sister Sophia in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music (Aspen Music Festival and School) and Iris in Handel’s Semele (Toronto Lyric Opera Centre). This season, Turgeon performed the role of Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she is currently pursuing her master’s degree. She received her Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the University of Toronto in 2022.

To learn more about the evening, visit HGO.org/COA.