Ten singers advance to the final round of the 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions

Finalists to compete at the live-streamed, public Grand Finals Concert on Sunday, May 16, at 3pm ET

Winners will receive individual cash prizes of $20,000 and invaluable exposure in the opera world

New York, NY (May 9, 2021)—Following today’s semifinal competition, ten singers have advanced to the final round of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2021 National Council Auditions—the Grand Finals Concert, which will be streamed live on Sunday, May 16, at 3pm ET. The winners will receive individual cash prizes of $20,000, and the remaining finalists will receive $10,000.

The singers will perform virtually from locations around the world, for an audience of judges, industry leaders, and the general public. The finalists, chosen by a panel of opera administrators from the Met and other companies, will each sing two arias. The concert will be hosted by bass Ryan Speedo Green, a 2011 National Council Auditions winner. Captions will be available for the spoken portions of the event.

Registration is free and required to view the Grand Finals Concert; to register, visit concerts.kiswe.com/metopera. The Grand Finals will also be available to view on demand for 48 hours after the live event.

The 2021 finalists, the regions they represent in the competition, and their hometowns are:

Jongwon Han, 26, bass-baritone (Rocky Mountain Region: Seoul, South Korea)
Duke Kim, 29, tenor (Western Region: Seoul, South Korea)
Hyoyoung Kim, 24, soprano (Southeast Region: Seoul, South Korea)
Brittany Olivia Logan, 28, soprano (New England Region: Garden Grove, CA)
Raven McMillon, 25, soprano (New England Region: Baltimore, MD)
Timothy Murray, 29, baritone (Western Region: Milwaukee, WI)
Murrella Parton, 30, soprano (Southeast Region: Seymour, TN)
Erica Petrocelli, 28, soprano (Central Region: East Greenwich, RI)
Emily Sierra, 23, mezzo-soprano (Eastern Region: Chicago, IL)
Emily Treigle, 23, mezzo-soprano (Gulf Coast Region: New Orleans, LA)

Full biographies of each singer are below.

This season, the National Council Auditions received nearly 1,200 applicants, with just over 600 singers qualifying for the 31 District Auditions. Of the 141 singers in the 10 Regional rounds, 23 were named semifinalists. To ensure safety and access for all involved, the auditions this season have taken place in a remote, live-streamed format from locations around the world.

These auditions are sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, including National Council members and hundreds of volunteers from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. More than $250,000 in prize money has already been awarded at the District and Regional rounds.

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, now in their 67th season, are a potentially career-making opportunity for aspiring opera singers, given the reach of the auditions, the number of applicants, and the program’s long tradition. The auditions have been crucial in introducing many of today’s best-known stars, including Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Eric Owens, Stephanie Blythe, Hei-Kyung Hong, Sondra Radvanovsky, Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Fabiano, Latonia Moore, Lisette Oropesa, Jamie Barton, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nadine Sierra, and Ryan Speedo Green.

The competition gained international fame with the release of the 2008 feature-length documentary The Audition, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, which chronicled the 2007 National Council Auditions season and Grand Finals Concert.

Biographies of the 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Finalists

Jongwon Han is a South Korean bass-baritone. He had a successful opera debut as Don Giovanni in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni in Seoul, South Korea in 2017. Mr. Han was featured in a concert in Cinque Terre, Italy (2017), Osaka, Japan (2018), and in multiple concerts in Seoul, South Korea performed several operatic roles such as Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Ford (Falstaff), Masetto (Don Giovanni) and Barone Douphol (La Traviata). He received ‘Stephen De Maio Memorial Award’ in 2021 Gerda Lissner Foundation and was one of the finalists of 2017 Fiorenza Cossotto International Competition in Italy. Also, he won 2nd prize in 2019 Career Bridges Competition and 3rd prize in 2019 Opera at Florham Vocal Competition in New York. He began his musical studies in Seoul, South Korea with Philip Kang, Kwangchul Youn and Gunyong Na. He graduated from Seoul National University (BM) and is studying at Mannes School of Music (MM, full scholarship) with Diana Soviero.

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, tenor Duke Kim is currently at the Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera. In Summer 2021, Duke will return to Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist, where he will be performing Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. During his studies at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, he performed Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Laurie in Little Women, and Count Belfiore in La Finta Giardiniera. After graduation, he was in the Studio Program at Wolf Trap Opera and performed Arbace in Idomeneo. Equally adept at concert, he has been the tenor soloist for Mozart Requiem, Handel Messiah, Mendelssohn Elijah, Bach Magnificat, and Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël. Duke has received numerous prizes including 1st place at the Shreveport Singer of the Year Competition, 2nd place in Gwendolyn Roberts Young Artist Auditions, and 1st place in New Century Singers Whittier Competition, and winning the Western Region Final of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Also, he was one of the finalists in Houston Grand Opera's Eleanor McCollum Competition.

Soprano Hyoyoung Kim, hailing from Seoul, South Korea, is a second-year master’s student in voice at Juilliard, where she studies with Edith Wiens. Her most recent appearances include Palm Beach Opera, Spoleto Festival, Vancouver Opera’s NYIOP Korea audition, and as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Seoul National University. She has also participated in master classes with Helmut Deutsch and David Blackburn. A recipient of multiple honors and scholarships, she is a winner of the KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) competition and second prize at the Jungang competition in Korea, including four performances with KBS orchestra. In 2017, she was selected as a Kumho Foundation Young Artist solo recitalist, and she gave duo concerts in 2018 and 2019. She holds a Toulmin Foundation Scholarship.

Lyric soprano Brittany Olivia Logan is quickly earning a reputation as one of the most exciting young singers to emerge from the United States. Recently, Ms. Logan won the Audience Choice Award at Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Concert of Arias Competition. This summer, she will be returning to Wolf Trap Opera as a studio artist covering Jeanette in L’Amant Anonyme and Maguelonne in Cendrillion. In 2020, Ms. Logan was programmed to cover Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and Musetta in La bohème at Wolf Trap Opera, but was cancelled due to COVID-19. Brittany is a former Young Artist at Cincinnati Opera, where she covered the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as performing in Porgy and Bess and Roméo et Juliette. A fierce proponent of new and contemporary music, Brittany’s acclaimed work on projects including: Matt Aucoin’s Eurydice (The Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera), Gregory Spears’ Castor and Patience (Cincinnati Opera), and Philip Glass’ The Perfect American (Long Beach Opera). Ms. Logan earned her MM in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) where she performed the roles of Magda in La rondine, Marenka in The Bartered Bride, and Giunone in La Calisto. She received her BM in Vocal Performance from California State University, Long Beach.

Soprano Raven McMillon is a native of Baltimore, MD. She is currently a first year member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio (HGO). In the summer of 2021, Ms. McMillon will join Cincinnati Opera as Frasquita in the company's outdoor presentation of Carmen. In the 2020-2021 season she made her HGO debut in scenes from Carmen (Frasquita) and L'elisir d'amore (Adina) in the Studio Showcase. She was also seen in the HGO Digital season as Rona Richards (The Impresario), Peter (The Making of The Snowy Day Documentary), and Gretel (Hansel and Gretel). Ms. McMillon also performed as a soloist in the Giving Voice concert as well as the HGO Studio Recitals. She will return to Houston Grand Opera as a second year studio artist for their 2021-2022 season as Frasquita (Carmen), Peter (The Snowy Day), and Papagena (The Magic Flute). In 2020, Ms. McMillon also collaborated with Lyric Opera of the North as Trish in the company's chapter in The Decameron Coalition's "Tales from a Safe Distance." Other opera credits include La Princesse in L’enfant et les sortilèges (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra); Adele in Die Fledermaus (Carnegie Mellon); Goldie in Goldie B. Locks and the Three Singing Bears (Pittsburgh Festival Opera); and Linfea in La Calisto (CCM). McMillion has also workshopped new roles such as Mary in Chiao’s The Secret Codes of Mary Bowser and Lucy in Picker’s Awakenings. Ms. McMillon received her MM Vocal Performance at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music and her BFA in Vocal Performance at Carnegie Mellon University.

Heralded for his “firm, flexible baritone” (New York Times) and “swaggering, rakish” stage presence (Opera News), American baritone Timothy Murray is currently a member of the Adler Fellowship Program with San Francisco Opera. Most recently, Mr. Murray performed with his fellow Adlers on a tour of Northern California in which he sang selections from Ernani, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Così fan tutte. As a participant of the 2019 Merola Opera Program, he performed the role of Paul in the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s opera, If I Were You, and finished out the summer on the War Memorial Opera House stage singing the title role in a scene from Thomas’ Hamlet as part of the Merola Grand Finale. Highlights from previous seasons include William Dale (Silent Night) with Arizona Opera, Il Conte (Le nozze di Figaro) and Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette) with The Academy of Vocal Arts, a return to the Oratorio Society of New York to cover the baritone soloist in Britten’s War Requiem, his New Jersey Symphony debut as the baritone soloist in Berlioz’s Lélio, and his debut with the Oratorio Society of New York as Pater Ecstaticus in Mahler’s 8th Symphony. Mr. Murray won First Prize in the Mario Lanza Scholarship Competition and was a semi-finalist in the 2020 Glyndebourne Opera Cup.

Originally from Seymour, Tennessee, soprano Murrella Parton has been described as “magnificent” and praised for her “commanding voice” by Arts-Louisville. Most recently, Ms. Parton received The Sergio Franchi Music Foundation Award and The Kleinschmidt Encouragement Award at the 2021 Vero Beach Opera Rising Stars Competition. She was the Grand Prize Winner of the Orpheus Vocal Competition (2020), a Finalist for the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition (2020), a Semi-Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2019), Finalist for the Lyric Opera of Chicago Ryan Opera Center (2019), and received the Second Prize and Soprano Prize in the Young Patronesses of the Opera National Voice Competition (2019). Ms. Parton has also been awarded the Second Prize in the Cooper Bing Competition (2018) and was the recipient of the Italo Tajo Award (2018), the Seybold-Russell Award (2016), and the Andrew White Award (2015) at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Opera Scholarship Competition. Ms. Parton has performed in productions of Glory Denied (Older Alyce), Die Zauberflöte (Erste Dame), Enemies, A Love Story (Sheva/Hannah), Gianni Schicchi (Nella), Ariodante (Ginevra), Idomeneo (Elettra), The Merry Widow (Sylviane), and Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi). Ms. Parton is a graduate of the University of Tennessee Knoxville and the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

American soprano Erica Petrocelli is currently a member of the International Opera Studio at Opernhaus Zürich. She began her 20/21 season making her European debut singing Prinzessin/ Marmeladeverkäuferin in Das tapfere Schneiderlein with Opernhaus Zürich. The remainder of the season there, she sang Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore, Stella in Les contes d’Hoffmann under Mo. Antonino Foglianini, and an IOS recital series, where she sang alongside Thomas Hampson and Anna Bonatatibus. From 2018 to 2020, Ms. Petrocelli was a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein young artist program at the Los Angeles Opera. There, she made many role debuts, including Musetta in La Bohème, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and Mrs. Naidoo in Satyagraha. She also sang a performance as the title role of Matthew Aucoin’s world premiere of Eurydice. Ms. Petrocelli was scheduled to make her principal artist debut with Opera Theatre of St. Louis in the summer of 2020, singing Micaëla in Carmen. Ms. Petrocelli received her Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree, and Artist Diploma from New England Conservatory. In the summer of 2017, she joined Opera Theatre of St. Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, and spent the following summer as an apprentice artist with the Santa Fe Opera. She sang in the National Semifinals for the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions in 2018, was a finalist in the International Hans-Gabor-Belvedere Competition, and was also a recipient of the top prize grant from the Sullivan Foundation.

Rising star Cuban-American mezzo-soprano Emily Sierra is currently studying at The Juilliard School, where she was finalist of the Premiere Opera + NYIOP Vocal competition and Eastern Region winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Aside from her studies, the 2020/21 season will see her join the prestigious Vocal Residency of the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, alongside performances in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz in conjunction with the renowned Internationale Meistersinger Akademie summer program of 2021. Operatic highlights include her debut with English National Opera in the Theatre Royal Stratford East production as a Gossip in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde and her debut with the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute of Vocal Arts at the Juilliard School in the filmed title role of Teseo by Handel. On the concert platform, Sierra has performed as alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, and Cloride in Handel’s Parnasso in festa at Wigmore Hall with the London Handel Festival. She has also appeared at Boston’s Symphony Hall and Curtiss Hall in Chicago. Sierra has studied internationally including the Sherrill Milnes VOICE Program in Georgia, and Si Parla Si Canta in Italy. She is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music having obtained her Bachelor's degree, where she was recipient of the 2019 President’s Award.

Emily Treigle, mezzo-soprano, is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. In Fall 2021, Ms. Treigle will join Houston Grand Opera as a Studio Artist for their 2021-2022 season. She was awarded 3rd place in the 33rd annual Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias with HGO. This summer, Ms. Treigle is returning to Wolf Trap Opera for a second season where she is covering the title role in Holst’s Savitri. She received her BM from Rice University in 2020. In 2019, she trained with HGO’s Young Artist Vocal Academy and participated in the Aspen Music Festival, where she portrayed Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music. Previous roles include Bradamante in Alcina and Mrs. Ott in Susannah, an opera made famous by her grandfather, world-renowned bass- baritone Norman Treigle. Ms. Treigle is a student of Dr. Stephen King.