News-or-Reviews

Dr. Craig Jessop is Professor of Music and the founding Dean for the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University. These appointments follow Dr. Jessop’s distinguished tenure as music director of the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Head of the Department of Music at Utah State.

1983/84 Utah District Winner

Distinguished American tenor Stanford Olsen is one of this generation’s most successful and versatile artists, his career spans more than 1,200 performances on five continents over the course of 30 years. He is a Professor of Voice at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance.

2011 Utah District Winner

Tenor A.J. Glueckert has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for his “superb,” “soaring” voice with “polished high notes.” In the 2016-2017 season, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Erik in Der fliegende Holländer. He also joined the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt and debuted at the Glyndebourne Festival as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos. He sang Pinkerton with The Santa Fe Opera in 2018.

1998/99 Utah District Winner

Celena Nelson Shafer has garnered acclaim for her silvery voice, fearlessly committed acting and phenomenal technique. She spends much of her time on the concert stage where she appears regularly with major orchestras. A celebrated artist in her home state of Utah, Ms. Shafer has long relationship with Utah Opera and Utah Symphony and will perform the Queen of the Night in Utah Opera's March 2019 production of The Magic Flute. She will sing Zerbinetta in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos with the Cincinnati Opera in July 2019.

2006/09 Utah District Winner

Hailed as a “rich voiced, expressive mezzo-soprano” by San Francisco Classical Voice and “appealingly direct and honest in tone and bearing,” by Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe, Nina Yoshida Nelsen made her New York City Opera debut with great success as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, conducted by George Manahan.In the 2017-2018 season, she returned to Seattle Opera in Jack Perla's An American Dream.

2008 Utah District Winner

Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen is quickly gaining international recognition as one of the most outstanding voices of her generation. She was the winner of both the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the 2011 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, a prize winner in the 2014 Richard Tucker Awards, and she received first prize in the 2014 Operalia Competition. Her 2018-19 season includes leading roles with Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, The Metropolitan Opera, and San Francisco Opera.