The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The sixth annual Handel Aria Competition is this coming Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
Not many people get to see a dream become reality in the way that Dean and Orange Schroeder, the longtime owners and operators of Orange Tree Imports, have.
Six years ago, the two had a dream of hosting a modest event to explore and celebrate the operatic music of the Baroque master George Frideric Handel that they so love.
Thus was born the annual Handel Aria Competition. (Below is a photo of the seven finalists in the 2015 competition).
Now, half a dozen years later, that same competition, once attached to the Madison Early Music Festival but now held independently a month earlier, has developed an international following, and is a much-loved and much-anticipated staple of the summer music season in Madison.
The sixth annual Handel Aria Competition will take place this coming Friday night, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall in the Mosse Humanities Building of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In addition to the professional judging for first, second and third prize, all those in attendance will be invited to vote for the “Audience Favorite” prize.
Tickets are $15, general admission, and will be available at the door.
Chosen from 110 international applicants, the seven finalists, all-female for the first time, are (below, from top left to right): soprano Sarah Hayashi; mezzo-soprano Sarah Coit; soprano Amanda Keenan; soprano Suzanne Karpov; mezzo-soprano Lindsay Metzger; soprano Sarah Yanovitch; and soprano Ashley Valentine. (Last year’s first-prize winner, mezzo-soprano Nian Wang, performs in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here is a link to the overall site for the Handel Aria Competition, with its underlying justification and wrap-ups of five previous competitions as well as information about how to apply for future ones and how to support the competition (a major fundraiser this spring was cancelled because of a snowstorm).
https://handelariacompetition.com
And here is a link to photos and extensive biographical information about the seven contestants and three judges for this year’s competition:
https://handelariacompetition.com/2018-competition/
Finally, here is the view of the competition from the outstanding early music ensemble that will accompany the finalists, the Madison Bach Musicians. It comes from MBM artistic director and keyboardist Trevor Stephenson:
“This is the fourth year that the Madison Bach Musicians have accompanied the finalists in this event. A wonderful collaboration has resulted, with a number of Handel Aria Competition prize-winners becoming favorite soloists with Madison Bach Musicians: Chelsea Morris (below), Margaret Fox, Andrew Rader, Gene Stenger and Nola Richardson.”
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