WINSTON-SALEM – Tenor René Barbera, 23, a music student at the North Carolina School of the Arts, won at the National Semi-Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) in New York City and will sing in the Grand Finals Concert (Winners Concert) on the stage of the Met next Sunday, Feb. 24.

Barbera was one of nine National Finalists selected from two dozen singers competing in the National Semi-Finals on Feb. 17 at the Met. The winners will continue to coach with the Met’s artistic staff in preparation for the Grand Finals Concert, accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, on Feb. 24.

The concert will be broadcast nationwide on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Network.

The jury will award up to five Grand Winner awards of $15,000 each. The remaining National Finalists will receive $5,000 each.

Barbera, from Texas, is pursuing his Bachelor of Music in the School of Music at NCSA. He is a student of Marilyn Taylor at NCSA.

Barbera was one of two winners at the MONC Southeast Regional Auditions in Atlanta on Jan. 27. There, Barbera competed against other winners from the North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida districts. All regional winners received cash awards and were brought to New York at the expense of the MONC for musical preparation under the guidance of the Metropolitan Opera’s music staff.

Barbera made it to the Southeast Regionals by being one of three equal winners at the North Carolina District Auditions in Charlotte on Jan. 12.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. Miguel Barbera Jr. of San Antonio, Texas, René Barbera also has been chosen to participate in San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program this summer. And he recently was chosen as one of nine singers to participate in the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program of the Los Angeles Opera for 2008-09.

NCSA School of Music alumna Gianna Rolandi was one of the judges at the National Semi-Finals. She is the director of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Established in 1954, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is a program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers. Many of the world’s foremost singers, among them Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, Ben Heppner, Jessye Norman, Samuel Ramey, and Frederica von Stade, have received awards from the National Council. Annually, approximately 100 former auditioners appear in Metropolitan Opera productions.

Singers from NCSA have won numerous district, regional and national Met auditions in years past.