WINSTON-SALEM – Tenor René Barbera, 23, a music student at the North Carolina School of the Arts, will compete this weekend in the National Semi-Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) in New York City.

Barbera, who is pursuing his Bachelor of Music in the School of Music at NCSA, 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 receive cash awards and are brought to New York at the expense of the MONC for musical preparation under the guidance of the Metropolitan Opera’s music staff.

The National Semi-Finals, on Feb. 17, is a competition held on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Approximately 10 of the Semi-Finalists will be selected as National Finalists, and will continue to coach with the Met’s artistic staff in preparation for the Grand Finals Concert, to be held the following Sunday (Feb. 24), accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

The jury will award up to five Grand Winner awards of $15,000 each. The concert is broadcast nationwide on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Network. The remaining National Finalists will receive $5,000 each, and those singers who were National Semi-Finalists, but did not advance to the National Finals, will be given $1,500 to further their studies.

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.

He is a student of Marilyn Taylor at NCSA.

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.

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.