WINSTON-SALEM – A student in the School of Music at the North Carolina School of the Arts was a winner at the North Carolina District Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) Auditions this past weekend.

Tenor René Barbera, 23, who is pursuing his Bachelor of Music in the School of Music at NCSA, was one of three equal winners at the Met Auditions, held Jan. 12 in Charlotte.

A student of Marilyn Taylor at NCSA, Barbera received The Florence C. Poyner Award. He sang “Ah! mes amis” from Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment  and “Hier soil ich dich denn Sehen” from Die Enfűhrung aus dem Serail by Mozart. 

Barbera will compete against other winners from the North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida districts in the Southeast Regional Finals, to be held Jan. 27 in Atlanta. One winner will be chosen to represent the Southeast Region in the National Semi-Finals in New York on Feb. 17.  The Grand Finals Concert will be held at the Metropolitan Opera on Feb. 24.

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.

Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Davis, a Professional Artist Certificate student with The A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at NCSA, received one of two Encouragement Awards presented at the North Carolina District Auditions in Charlotte: The Ron and Charlotte Payne Encouragement Award.  Davis, who studies with Marion Pratnicki at NCSA, sang “Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle” from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and “Smanie implacabili” from Cosi fan tutte by Mozart.  Davis is originally from Greensboro.

The North Carolina District judges were Ruth Golden, director of vocal studies, Academy of Vocal Arts, Philadelphia; Gayletha Nichols, executive director, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, New York; and Brad Woolbright, artistic administrator of the Santa Fe Opera.

For the second year, an additional award, The North Carolina District Award, was presented anonymously in honor of the Vocal Music Faculty at the North Carolina School of the Arts. 

Established in 1954, the 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, Jessye Norman, Ben Heppner, Deborah Voigt, Teresa Stratas, 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.