The Well-Tempered Ear

This year’s Handel Aria Competition is now available on YouTube 

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By Jacob Stockinger

This summer marked the 10th anniversary of the Handel Aria Competition.

From modest beginnings, the competition — founded by local business owners and longtime classical music supporters Orange and Dean Schroeder — has grown into an international professional-level event. For 2023, more than 125 singers from around the world applied and those selected as finalists received a travel allowance.

Now with former first-prize winner and Grammy-winning soprano Sarah Brailey as its artistic director, the competition took place on Aug. 18 in the historic Grace Episcopal Church on the Capitol Square. (Photographs are by Lewis Photography.)

The competition, where singers are accompanied by the early-music, period-instrument ensemble Madison Bach Musicians (below, with soprano Olivia Doig) under Trevor Stephenson at the harpsichord, has also had an impact on the local scene.

You can see the participants’ names and backgrounds as well as bios of\ the judges, along with the history of the competition, at: https://handelariacompetition.org/

The Ear has learned that next year’s competition will see a return to the high school version of the competition, which was suspended during the covid pandemic along with the competition itself.

The Handel Aria Competition is working with Mike Ross and  the Madison Youth Choirs to bring back the competition’s High School Singers Showcase. The 2024 high school event will be a master class open to the public on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 24, 2024 at the MYArts building, 1055 E. Mifflin St. (The website is madisonyoutharts.org)

Orange Schroeder, who is pleased by and proud of the competition over its 10 years, writes:

“Emily Donato, who took third prize last year, won first prize this year. All five of our finalists (below with Donato in the center), were great! You can judge for yourself now that all their performances are on YouTube.

“We were down from seven finalists due to covid and other unforeseen circumstances, but it was still a full evening of amazing performances.

“Our two tenors took second prize (Andrew Reardon Brown, far right) and third prize (Fran Daniel Laucerica, second from right). Coincidentally they both sang the same aria from “Messiah” as their second piece, but their performances were different in the very way that Handel hoped singers would vary his works.

“The PDF of the program in on our home page. Chea Kang is still listed but was unable to come.”

Here is a link to the 1 hour, 11-minute competition concert on the YouTube channel, where you can also watch and listen to full performances from the past decade of the Handel Aria Competition and decide whether you agree with the judges: