The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The fifth annual Handel Aria Competition is this Friday night – and the event has grown into a major event with broad cross-cultural appeal
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By Jacob Stockinger
In a short time, it has become one of the year’s MUST-HEAR local events for fans of Baroque music, fine singing, and the music of composer George Frideric Handel.
This Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the fifth annual Handel Aria Competition will take place.
Handel Aria Competition tickets are $15 for general admission, and will be available at the door.
For the third year, the Madison Bach Musicians, led by the keyboardist founder and artistic director Trevor Stephenson, will accompany the seven finalists who were selected from over 100 applicants from China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and 26 states including Hawaii.
Finalists in the 2017 Handel Aria Competition are pictured below (left to right): Gene Stenger, Clara Osowski, Nicole Heinen (who studied at the UW-Madison), Brian Giebler, Nian Wang, Andrew Rader and Johanna Bronk.
In addition to the professional judging for first, second and third prize, there will be a cash prize for Audience Favorite.
The Handel Aria Competition is an annual event held in Madison, Wisconsin to promote the performance of Handel’s extensive vocal repertoire.
Once connected to the Madison Early Music Festival in July, it has evolved into a separate event due to logistics and staffing.
Founders Dean and Orange Schroeder (below) are enthusiasts of George Frideric Handel’s music and lifelong supporters of the arts.
They write:
“In the spring of 2013, we started the Handel Aria Competition with no real experience, using only the Handel Singing Competition in London – the world’s only, at that time – as a model. We were inspired by the recent groundswell of interest in Handel’s operas and oratorios, most of which have been rarely performed for some 300 years!”
Since then, the competition has grown from 50 to 105 applicants and features orchestral accompaniment as well as large, enthusiastic and often partisan audiences.
You can follow the competition, with news and background stories on the Facebook page for the Handel Aria Competition at https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=handel%20aria%20competition
For more information, including extensive biographies of the finalists and the results of past competitions as well as advice about how to apply for the competition and how to support it, go to the website HandelAriaCompetition.com
Countertenor Eric Jurenas, winner of the 2016 competition, can be heard in the YouTube video below:
Tags: alto, aria, Arts, Baroque, biography, Canada, Cello, Chamber music, China, Classical music, Competition, countertenor, cross-cultural, Early music, Facebook, George Frideric Handel, Handel Aria Competition, Hawaii, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Early Music Festival, MEMF, Mexico, Mezzo-soprano, Music, opera, oratorio, Orchestra, Puerto Rico, soprano, state, tenor, Trevor Stephenson, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
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