The Lotte Lehmann Foundation is proud to announce the winners of the 2006 CyberSing Competition. CyberSing is the only international singing competition available to entrants purely on the basis of their recorded submissions. This year, the biannual competition drew entries from Asia, Europe and North America. Contestants are divided into two categories: Division I includes singers up to the age of 23 while Division II comprises singers above the age of 23. Each year, a required song is commissioned from a major internationally-known composer and made available for download from the Foundation's website. This year's required song was "How to Make Coq Au Vin" by Dan Welcher. The competition also features "audience voting" in which the online public is invited to vote for its favorite entry via the competition website. Judges for the final round of the competition included Christopher Arneson, Martin Bruns and Lehmann Foundation board members Lindsey Christensen and Daniel Gundlach.
This year's winners are:
Division One:
Debra Stanley, soprano (USA), (assisted by pianist Fan Yang (China)):
The Violet Chang Top Prize in Memory of Her Professor Dr. Erik Werba, Vienna ($1000)
Mélodie Prize to honor the mélodie composer, Jacques Leguerney (1906-1997): Mary Dibbern ($250)
Required Song Prize in Memory of Susanna Kim Lar: Dwight & Louise Emery ($250)
The Nancy Bannick Lieder Prize in Honor of Judy Neale ($250)
American soprano Debra Stanley graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2004, where she studied with Carol Webber. She is currently in the Lieder class of pianist Hartmut Höll and mezzo-soprano Mitsuko Shirai at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and studying privately with Rudolf Piernay in Germany. She received a fellowship to study and perform at the Ravinia Festival as part of the Steans Institute for Young Artists in the summer of 2006. She has coached with artists such as Rudolf Piernay, Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, Elly Ameling, Edith Wiens, Rudolf Jansen, Helmut Deutsch, and Graham Johnson, and sung in master classes with Christa Ludwig, Julia Varady, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Debra Stanley recently won third prize at the 2006 International Euriade Vocal Concours in Kerkrade, Holland. She was awarded of the Golden Key International Honor Society study abroad scholarship toward her studies in Germany.
Jonathan Michie, baritone (USA), (assisted by pianist Joe Liccardo (USA)):
American Song Prize: Albert Schütz ($250)
American baritone Jonathan Michie is currently pursuing his Masters degree at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Carol Webber. He has performed an eclectic repertoire at Eastman Opera Theatre and is the winner of the Kurt Weill Foundation's 2005 Lotte Lenya Competition, and the Liederkranz Foundation's 2006 Reusche Lieder Award. He has been featured in concert at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and has participated in master classes with Jay Lesenger, Jennifer Larmore, Robert White and Richard Hundley. He returns to Chautauqua Opera in 2007 as a Young Artist, singing Moralès in Carmen, among other roles, and performs a recital of works by Kurt Weill at the 2007 Spoleto USA Festival.
Kristin Hoff, soprano (Canada) (assisted by pianist Rachel Rensink-Hoff (Canada)):
The Nancy Bannick Mélodie Prize in Honor of Beebe Freitas ($250)
Canadian soprano Kristin Hoff received a BA in vocal performance and piano performance at Calvin College and is in her first year of the vocal performance masters program at the University of Montreal, where she studies under Mark Pedrotti. She is currently pursuing an independent study/research project on Judith Weir and this spring will present a recital of several of her works, chamber and solo, including her unaccompanied opera for soprano, King Harald’s Saga.
David Wilson, tenor (USA), (assisted by pianist Thomas Bandy (USA)):
Audience Prize: Ruth Ballard ($250)
Tenor David Wilson is an active performer of a variety of repertoire ranging from opera and concert to art song. He has performed as a soloist at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, at the National Opera Association 2006 Convention, at the Kennedy Center, at Boston’s Jordan Hall and at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. He has sung in art song recitals throughout the greater Boston and greater metro-Detroit areas, and participated in master classes for renowned singers and coaches such as Walter Moore, Gabriela Lechner, and Sondra Kelly. Currently a student of Martha Sheil at UM, Wilson will complete his bachelors degree in April of 2007, and plans to pursue graduate studies the following year.
Division Two:
Andrew Garland, baritone (USA) (assisted by pianist Bethany Johnson (USA)):
Top Prize (shared $2500)
American Song Prize: Daron Hagen & Paul Sperry ($500)
American baritone Andrew Garland has an active career in opera, concert and recital. He has sung with Lake George Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, the National Philharmonic, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Phillips Collection, the Cathedral Choral Society, the Bard Music Festival, the New York Festival of Song, and under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Together with pianist Donna Loewy, he has performed programs of art songs by living American composers were heard in New York City, Washington, DC, Seattle, Cincinnati, Fullerton, CA, Hammond, LA, and Williamsburg, VA. Last summer Garland premiered Jake Heggie’s Here and Gone at the Ravinia Festival. Garland is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His teachers and coaches have included William McGraw, Paulina Stark, John Humphrey, Oren Brown, Elizabeth Mannion, Martin Katz, Donna Loewy, Kenneth Griffiths and Terry Lusk.
Danielle Talamantes, soprano (USA), (assisted by pianist Joy Schreier (USA)):
Top Prize (shared $2500)
Danielle Talamantes, soprano, has performed with Spoleto Festival USA, Wolf Trap Opera, Nevada Opera, and Annapolis Opera. She has sung in oratorio with various groups in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Ms. Talamantes is the current first place winner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards and will appear in a solo recital in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in March, 2007. Ms. Talamantes maintains a voice studio in the Northern Virginia area and holds degrees from Virginia Tech and Westminster Choir College.
Peiyi Wang, mezzo-soprano (China) (assisted by pianist Thomas Bandy (USA)):
Mélodie Française Prize: Dalton Baldwin ($500)
Lieder Prize: Natalie Limonick ($500)
Peiyi Wang, mezzo-soprano, originally from Beijing, China, obtained her masters degree and Specialist degree in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan-School of Music and her bachelors degree in English Language & Literature from Peking University. Ms. Wang made her professional debuts in 2006 with Michigan Opera Theatre in the title role of Cenerentola, and with the University Musical Society as Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice in 2001 and as Roggiero in Tancredi in 2006. Ms. Wang was the first prize winner of Great Lakes Opera Competition and Harold Haugh Opera Competition. She has recorded music of David Amram for Naxos as part of its Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. She was the recipient of career grants from the Ars Gratia Artis Foundation and the Rislov Foundation and she has participated in master classes with Lorraine Nubar and Dalton Baldwin.
Thomas Bandy, pianist (USA):
Best Collaborative Pianist Prize in Honor of Dalton Baldwin: Lindsey Christiansen ($500)
Thomas Bandy is originally from Charleston, South Carolina, and is presently finishing his doctoral studies in collaborative piano at the University of Michigan. He studies with Martin Katz, with whom he also studied during work on his Master's degree, received in 2004. He currently plays in the voice studios of Shirley Verrett and George Shirley. He graduated summa cum laude from Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2001 with a double major in philosophy and piano.
Shieh Yih Lim, tenor (Singapore) (assisted by pianist Pei-Chi Hong (Taiwan)):
Robert Bullington Audience Prize, in honor of the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Mercer County, New Jersey ($500)
Tenor Shieh-Yih Lim has performed widely in opera, oratorio and art song, including Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the New England Conservatory, as well as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos at Music Academy of the West. He has also participated in summer programs at the Pacific Music Festival and at the Aspen Music Festival. He has earned degrees from the Trinity College of Music, London, the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, PR China and the Juilliard School in both piano and voice. His teachers include Scelagh Molyneaux, Yang Jie, Li Xinchang, Robert White, Edward Zambara and Marilyn Horne. Currently residing in his native Singapore, Mr. Lim is a member of the voice faculty at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LaSalle – SIA College of the Arts in Singapore.
