10th Annual Handel Aria Competition
August 18, 2023, at 7:30pm CDT
Grace Episcopal Church, Madison, Wisconsin
The 10th Annual Handel Aria Competition took place August 18th, 2023 at 7:30pm at the Grace Episcopal Church, Madison, Wisconsin. The finalists were selected from a field of applications from around the world and accompanied by the Madison Bach Musicians under the direction of Trevor Stephenson.
Winners
First prize: Emily Donato, soprano
Second prize: Andrew Bearden Brown, tenor
Third prize: Fan Daniel Laucerica, tenor
Final Round Judges
The judges for the final round of the 9th annual Handel Aria Competition, on the right, were Chase Hopkins, Sam Handley, and Paul Rowe. | Photo by Lewis Photography
Sam Handley
Sam Handley, bass-baritone, has been praised for “his rich, burnished” voice and the “genuine emotional depth of his characterizations.” He has performed more than a dozen roles at Lyric Opera of Chicago and first joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera in 2017 for Der Rosenkavalier. Handley made his Asian debut as Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the National Centre for Performing Arts (Beijing) under the baton of Lorin Maazel, with whom he had previously performed Colline in La Boheme.
On the symphonic stage, his deep repertoire encircles masterworks of Handel, Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Charpentier, Stradella, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Verdi, and Mozart, in whose Requiem Handley has been described as “striking in the tuba mirum.”
Dr. Handley has long loved sharing his knowledge of the art of singing and was a Teaching Fellow during both his Master and Doctoral studies. Sam currently serves on the faculty of DePaul University in Chicago and is in demand as a Master Teacher, Clinician, and Adjudicator. He is President of the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Executive and Artistic Director of the Green Lake Festival of Music.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Sam now resides in Sheboygan, WI, and enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, especially while camping, hiking, sailing, cooking, fine dining, and keeping up with their Labrador Finzi!
Chase Hopkins
Chase Hopkins is currently serving as the general director of Chicago’s acclaimed Haymarket Opera Company. Since 2020, Hopkins has Haymarket through its tenth anniversary season featuring three innovative cinematic productions of Handel operas that received praise from international press as “an inspiring and relevant modern production” (Operawire) and “a superb document of a Handel opera” (Chicago Tribune). Performances have reached over 800,000 audiences and gained recognition through national broadcasts on the WFMT Saturday matinee opera series, alongside top opera companies from around the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera House, Royal Opera House, and more. Hopkins has welcomed top artists including Bejun Mehta and Nicole Cabell to Haymarket, and in 2023 will release the company’s first commercial recording with Chicago’s legendary record label, Cedille Records, who have recorded top Chicago artists and ensembles for over three decades. Hopkins brings expertise to Haymarket as both a performer and creative producer. His own singing career included a strong focus on Baroque opera, having performed with distinguished conductors at festivals across Europe and the United States including Rene Jacobs, Jonathan Cohen, and Christian Curnyn. On the operatic stage, Hopkins has been described as a “strong and convincing presence” (Opera Today) and has been praised for delivering “thoughtful and disciplined” performances (Operawire). He holds a bachelor’s degree in performance, arts administration, and musicology from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in performance from the Royal Northern College of Music in the United Kingdom. Hopkins is the founding artistic director of Opera Edwardsville (Illinois), a role he maintains while serving as Haymarket Opera Company’s general director. Chase is currently receiving executive training at the Harvard Business School.
Paul Rowe
Baritone Paul Rowe has maintained a wide-ranging performing career throughout the United States for the past 30 years. He has performed with many of the leading American musical organizations including the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa at Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall in New York, American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera and Kennedy Center, and Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. He has appeared as well with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Alabama and Arkansas symphony orchestras, the Folger Consort, and the Ensemble for Early Music, among many other groups.
As a member of the Waverly Consort, Mr. Rowe toured the United States, the Far East and South America and participated in the Consort’s regular series at Alice Tully Hall and the Cloisters in New York. In addition, he performed for two years as a member of the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, touring the U. S. and Yugoslavia and recording two discs: the Quartets of Haydn and Trios of Mozart, and a disc entitled Listen to the Mockingbird, featuring songs of Stephen Foster and other American music. He has sung at various summer festivals including Marlboro, Aspen, Flagstaff Festival of the Arts, Hot Springs and Sewanee.
Paul Rowe has served on the voice faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Vanderbilt University, State University of New York at Purchase, Lehigh University and Nazareth College of Rochester, the Berkshire Choral Festival, and the Tennessee State Governor’s School. Paul Rowe is Professor of Voice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Artistic Director of the Madison Early Music Festival, an annual festival he helped found in 2000.
Finalists
The five finalists in the 2023 Handel Aria Competition were selected from over 125 auditions received from around the world. Clockwise, from upper left: Olivia Doig, soprano, Fran Daniel Laucerica, tenor, Emily Donato, soprano, Andrew Bearden Brown, tenor, and Matthew Reese, countertenor. (Soprano Chea Kang is unfortunately not able to participate due to illness.)
Andrew Bearden Brown, tenor
Lauded by The Washington Post for his “pure” and “poignant” sound, Andrew Bearden Brown is a tenor equally at home on operatic and concert stages. Currently pursuing a Performance Diploma at the Boston University Opera Institute, Andrew performed with the Opera Institute as the Stage Manager in Rorem’s Our Town, Laurie in Adamo’s Little Women, and Oronte in Handel’s Alcina. In the 2022/2023 season, he also debuted with Opera Neo as Marzio in Mozart’s Mitridate and covered Tempo in Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. Andrew’s solo concert appearances for the season included Handel’s Messiah with Ensemble Altera and with Tempesta di Mare, as well as Evangelist with Ashmont Hill Chamber Music for Bach’s St. John Passion.
Recent operatic roles include Torquemada in Ravel’s L’heure espagnole (Royal College of Music) and Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Felici Opera). As an oratorio soloist, he has performed with groups such as the Providence Baroque Orchestra, The Thirteen, the Washington National Cathedral Choir, the Academy of Ancient Music, and Voces8.
Andrew received his early music education as a boy chorister at Washington National Cathedral. Later he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Brown University, as well as a master’s degree from the Royal College of Music. His voice teachers include Lynn Eustis, Elizabeth Daniels, Justin Lavender, and Bradley Fugate. In 2023, he won the Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra’s Collegiate Vocal Competition and received the William Grogan Award in the Oratorio Society of New York’s Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition at Carnegie Hall.
Olivia Doig, soprano
Chicago-based soprano Olivia Doig performs a range of classical and musical theater repertoire across the Midwest. Performance highlights include Josephine in HMS Pinafore (Ohio Light Opera), Zaneeta in The Music Man (Ohio Light Opera), Amor in Ariane et Bachus (Haymarket Opera), the title role in Patience (Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, Inc.), the soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria (Hinsdale Chorale), Gabriel in Haydn’s Creation (Tallahassee Community Chorus), performing as a summer residency artist with Florentine Opera, and productions with Chicago Opera Theater, Thompson Street Opera, and Music Theater Works. She can be heard on Lynx Project’s 2022 album beautiful small things, which features poetry by neurodiverse young people set to music by classical composers. Olivia has received awards from the American Opera Society of Chicago, the Musicians Club of Women, the Chicago Bel Canto Foundation, the Orpheus Music Competition, the Lotte Lenya Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She will continue her Handel performances this season as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Chicago Camerata and the Wheaton College Artist Series.
Olivia shares her love for musical storytelling through teaching, including work as a voice instructor and directing student opera and musical theater productions. She co-developed Lynx Project’s cross-genre education program Composition of a City, which teaches youth about the role of poetry in classical art song and hip-hop rap and aids them in writing their own music and poetry through elements of these two genres.
Emily Donato, soprano
Soprano Emily Donato, born and based in Brooklyn, NY, has appeared recently as the soprano soloist in Bach’s B Minor Mass at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York led by Maestro Kent Tritle, and with Voices of Ascension led by Maestro Dennis Keene. She was a member of the 2023 Virginia Best Adams Quartet at the Carmel Bach Festival. Ms. Donato was awarded first prize in the 2021 Lyndon-Woodside Oratorio Competition held at Riverside Church in New York City and has performed as a soloist with Maestro Masaaki Suzuki, Nicholas McGegan, Simon Carringon, David Hill, and Leon Botstein. Emily is an alumnus of the GRAMMY award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, holds her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Bard College, and her Master of Music from the Yale School of Music where she studied as a member of the Yale Voxtet.
Fran Daniel Laucerica, tenor
Labeled “a very promising high tenor” by Opera News, Cuban-American tenor, Fran Daniel Laucerica, has been praised for his clarity and agility in operatic and concert repertoire. As an Emerging Artist with Virginia Opera, he covered the roles of Frederic (Pirates of Penzance) and Timothy Laughlin (Fellow Travelers), as well as performed in La Traviata as Gastone and Alfredo. A Glimmerglass Festival 2022 Young Artist, he performed as Dante in the premiere of Tenor Overboard and covered roles in Taking Up Serpents and Holy Ground. Laucerica is also a former young artist with Toledo Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. Other recent operatic credits include Ernesto (Don Pasquale), The Magician (The Consul), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), and Albert (Albert Herring). In concert, Mr. Laucerica has performed as a Tenor Soloist in Carmina Burana, Bach’s Cantata 12, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, and Handel’s Messiah.
Matthew Reese, countertenor
Hailed by Opera News magazine as “vibrant, and full of empathy”, American countertenor Matthew Reese made his professional debut as Belize in the New York premiere of Peter Eötvös’ Angels in America with New York City Opera. Additionally, Matthew has premiered this role internationally in Salzburg during the 2021-2022 season with Salzburg Landestheater and this current season in the Bremen, Germany premiere production with Theater Bremen. Other operatic credits include Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cardinal/Oracle #1 in Philip Glass’ Galileo Galilei. He has garnered much success at many vocal competitions at both the regional and national level. Highlights include: a two-time district award winner and regional encouragement award winner for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the second place winner in the inaugural pre-professional division for the George Shirley National Vocal Competition, the Handel award recipient at the Orpheus National Vocal Competition and becoming the first countertenor grand prize winner for both the Heafner-Williams National Vocal Competition and the S. Livingston Mather Competition for Male Vocalists. Matthew completed undergraduate studies at Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music in Columbus, GA. Graduate studies were completed at UNC-Greensboro where his transition to the countertenor voice took place through the assistance of his current instructor Dr. Robert Bracey.
Program
Watch 2023’s Competition
View past performances by finalists and competition winners on our YouTube channel.
Support Us Your donation helps us support emerging singers throughout the competition process by underwriting travel grants and awards, as well as providing remuneration for competition judges and instrumental accompanists.
Handel Aria Competition 