27th ANNUAL PALM SPRINGS OPERA GUILD VOCAL SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITION WINNERS

The Palm Springs Opera Guild
Scholarship - $5000

Jacquelynne Fontaine
Soprano, 28

Program:
Je veux vivre
Charles-Francois Gounod
Romeo et Juliette

Ah! non credea mirarti..
Ah! non giunge
Vincenzo Salvator Bellini
La Sonnambula





The Renata Tebaldi
Scholarship - $3000

Yujoong Kim
Tenor, 26

Program:
Una furtiva lagrima
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti
L'elisir d'amore

Dein ist mein ganzes Herz
Franz Lehar
Das Land des Lacheins






The Lily Pons
Scholarship - $2000

Karen Vuong
Soprano, 26

Program:
No word from Tom
Igor Stravinsky
The Rakes Progress

Depuis le jour
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Louise






The Luciano Pavarotti
Scholarship - $1500

Joshua Guerrero
Tenor, 27

Program:
Questa a quella
Giuseppe Fortunino Verdi
Rigoletto

La fleur que tu m'avais jetee
Georges Bizet
Carmen







The Jean C. Carrus
Scholarship - $1000

Marina Harris
Soprano, 25

Program:
Come scoglia
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Cosi fan tutte

Du bist der Lenz
Wilhelm Richard Wagner
Die Walkure





The Palm Springs Opera Guild
Runners-Up Awards - $500 each

Melissa Batalles
Soprano, 25

Program:
Caro nome
Giuseppe Fortunino Verdi
Rigoletto

Glitter and Be Gay
Leonard Bernstein
Candide


Rachael Hirsch
Soprano, 23

Program:
Che faro senza Euridice?
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck
Orfeo ed Euridice

Glitter and Be Gay
Leonard Bernstein
Candide





Alexey Sayapin
Tenor, 25

Program:
Ella mi fu rapita
Giuseppe Fortunino Verdi
Rigoletto

Che gelida manina
Giacomo Antonio Puccini
La Boheme







Valerie Vinzant
Soprano, 26

Program:
O luci di quest'anima
Domenico Gaetano Donizetti
Linda di Chamounix

Gavotte
Jules Massenet
Manon



Special Encouragement Award
$250

Anna Schubert
Soprano, 21

Program:
The soldier tir'd of war's alarms
Thomas Arne
Artaxerxes



Scholarship Sponsors

The Palm Springs Opera Guild
Scholarship -$5000
Craig & Barbara Salsbury, Diane Rubin, and Don & Peggy Cravens

The Renata Tebaldi
Scholarship -$3000
George Klauss

The Lily Pons
Scholarship -$2000
Theresa Berman, Kathy Sanders, and Dr. Kurt & Edit DeCrinis

The Luciano Pavarotti
Scholarship -$1500
Terry Hendrix & Gracia Alkema, Stephen Lind, Arthur & Patty Newman and Gladys Rubenstein

The Jean C. Carrus
Scholarship -$1000
Jean C. Carrus

The Palm Springs Opera Guild
Runners-Up Awards of $500 each
The Don & Ruth Tosti Opera Guild Fund and Anonymous Donors

The Special Encouragement
Award -$250
Michael Cressey in memory of Joan Sutherland


Judges

(Left to Right)
Patricia Minton
Valery Ryvkin
Kenneth Morris




Music Director and Pianist
Mona Lands

VOCAL SCHOLARSHIP FINALIST ANNOUNCED

The Judges Have Announced
the Competition Finalists!

Palm Springs Opera Guilds
27th Annual Vocal Scholarship Competition
Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.
Annenberg Theatre at the Palms Springs Art Museum
Box Office: 760.325.4490

The judges for the audition portion of the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Scholarship Competition which took place in both Los Angeles and Palm Springs have made a very difficult decision and based on the very close ratings of the audition applicants selected the finalist. The following finalist will move on to the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Scholarship Competition final event on December 5, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. at the Annenberg Theatre in the Palm Springs Art Museum at 101 North Museum Drive in Palm Springs.

This exciting annual event is open to the public and the Guild cordially invites you to join us for the final competition and cash scholarship awards presentation. Tickets are available at the Annenberg Box Office at 760.325.4490. Seats are $40. PSOG Members receive seats at a member discount rate of $35.

Palm Springs Opera Guild
Vocal Scholarship Competition Finalist for 2010

1. Yujooong Kim: Lyric Tenor
2. Alexey Sayapin: Lyric Tenor
3. Jacquelynne Fontaine: Soprano
4. Marina Harris: Soprano
5. Joshua Guerrero: Lyric dramatic tenor
6. Melissa Batalles: Soprano
7. Rachael Hirsch: Mezzo soprano
8. Karen Vuong: Soprano
9. Douglas Carpenter: Baritone
10. Valerie Vinzant: Soprano

Special Award: Anna Schubert: Soprano

SAVE THE DATE: DECEMBER 5, 2010

The Palm Springs Opera Guild of the Desert
Cordially invites you to

AN EVENING IN THE ATRIUM

A Post Vocal Scholarship
Competition Benefit Dinner

Exciting Silent Auction
Passed Canapés and Wine
No-host bar
Dinner with Wine
Entrée selections from the Hyatt’s new Chef

(1.) Vegetable Burrata en Croute
(2.) Rib Eye with Cabernet Reduction
(3.) Pan Seared Salmon with Lemon Caper Beurre

Dessert, Coffee, Tea

Replete with operatic interlude by Vocal Scholarship Winners

Sunday, December 5, 2010

6:00 P.M.

Hyatt Regency Suites Palm Springs Atrium


$125.00 per person donation
($65.00 tax-deductible)

Kindly RSVP to the Guild with details
760.325.6107

Host Sponsor: Hyatt Regency Suites

PALM SPRING LIFE FEATURES PSOG & VALERY RYVKIN

Excerpts from the December issue of Palm Springs Life feature article "THE THREE MAESTROS" by Linda Mears Hardie.

A NEW OUTING

"For all of the impressive notches in his opera-conducting belt, Valéry Ryvkin is a realist when it comes to the popular appeal of the genre.

He recognizes that some scores engage audiences more than others — such as Mozart’s "Die Zauberflöte" ("The Magic Flute"), which he conducted for the first time recently in Greensboro, N.C., as artistic director of the city’s opera company. “I have to say I adored it,” Ryvkin says. “It was refreshing.”

Another refreshing experience awaits him when he raises the baton for the daylong Opera in the Park on March 27, 2011, spotlighting some of the Southwest’s brightest new talent. It will mark the second year Ryvkin has lent his skills to Palm Springs Opera Guild’s popular event, now in its 13th year. “It is so important for young, would-be performers to experience the audition process for the Palm Springs opera competition,” he says.

“One of the deciding factors in who performs at Opera in the Park — part of a prize for that competition — is career potential, because if they succeed at this level, it means financial help and more opportunities to perform elsewhere.”

While Ryvkin may find it hard to believe the desert has 5,000 die-hard opera fans who would clamor to attend, for example, "The Maid of Orleans" (the Russian production with which he made his European debut last year in Germany), he sees potential in the informal ambiance of Sunrise Park attracting those whose musical tastes lie elsewhere. “They might say, ‘Hey, this is not that scary; we should try opera sometime.’”

And they would be among the converts making opera the fastest-growing performance art in the country, enjoying a 35 percent increase in its audience in the past decade, according to The New York Times.

If Ryvkin could make an opera sound like Broadway by putting a big orchestra and big voices behind it (as in "Séance on a Wet Afternoon"), then further decoding it with a series of youthful vocals under blue skies and sunshine is all to the greater good of the art."

Click here to read the entire article at PalmSpringsLife.com and if you are not a current subscriber, look for the December Palm Springs Life issue at your favorite news stand or outlet now.