Young Singer Art Song Competition

CONGRATULATIONS to the WINNERS of our 2024 Young Singer Art Song Competition!

Best Overall Performance

Kylie Kreucher

​Jake Heggie "Women have loved before"
Antonin Dvorak "O naši lásce nekvete"

Kylie is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Opera at Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Julia Faulkner. This season at Curtis, Kylie sang Marianne in the Act 2 Opening of Der Rosenkavalier with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and made her role debut as Lišak in Příhody lišky Bystroušky. She recently completed her bachelor’s degree at Oberlin Conservatory, where she was honored with the Pi Kappa Lambda Award for Musicianship, the Margot Bos Stambler ‘84 Award for Professional Development, and the Theodore Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award. Recent awards and honors include an Encouragement Award at the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, winner of the 2022 Schmidt Undergraduate Vocal Competition, and the Jessye Norman award at the Great Lakes NATS Competition. Kylie was a two-time Vocal Fellow at Music Academy of the West where she made her role debut as Musetta under the baton of Daniela Candillari in the Granada Theatre of Santa Barbara. This summer, Kylie will be attending Wolf Trap Opera as a Studio Artist where she will cover Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte as well as Jackie O. in the vocal-piano workshop for The House of Yes, a new opera commissioned for Wolf Trap.

Best performance of a non-contemporary work (pre-1990)

Rachel Doehring Jackson

Francis Poulenc "Reine des Mouettes"

Soprano Rachel Doehring Jackson has been praised for her “absolutely loveable, endearing...remarkable” performances (Seen and Heard Intl.).
An avid recitalist and chamber musician, Jackson opened the ‘23-’24 season with a concert of American song at Chamberfest Brown County in Nashville, Indiana, and appeared in recitals at St. Bartholomew’s Church and Brooklyn Conservatory in New York City. She is a 2024 Vocal Fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, where she will appear in a masterclass with William Christie, and she is a Finalist in the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s 2024 Bach Vocal Competition for American Singers. Recent highlights include premieres of new works by Kamala Sankaram, Michi Wiancko, and Aaron Siegel with Experiments in Opera, and appearing as Susanna in scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro with the Albany Symphony. While at Bard Conservatory, Jackson performed with Peter Serkin, Sō Percussion, and sang the lead role of Milica in Anna Sokolovic’s Svadba, a Serbian acapella opera for six women.

Jackson is passionate about programming and producing. Working with Founder Lucy Dhegrae, she was previously the Producer of Resonant Bodies Festival. Excerpts of her self-produced programs have aired on WCNY’s Fresh Ink. She was a member of TENET Vocal Artists’ 2023 Early and Chamber Music mentorship program, and holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Bard College Conservatory, where she was mentored by the famed soprano, Dawn Upshaw. www.racheldoehrinqiackson.com

Best performance of a contemporary work (post-1990) or work by a BIPOC composer

Brandon Bell

Robert Owens "If We Must Die" (3 Songs for Baritone, op. 41)

Brandon Bell (he/him/his) is a young baritone making waves in the operatic landscape within North America. Mr. Bell recently completed his second season as a Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera, performing the roles of Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride, Pa Zegner in Proving Up, and Baron Douphol in La traviata. In the summer of 2023, he joined Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Singer, singing the Shepherd in Pelléas et Mélisande and Pastore 2 in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Equally at home on the concert stage, this Spring, Mr. Bell makes his Santa Clara Chorale debut as the soloist in Margaret Bond’s Credo and presents Gregory Spears’s Walden with both the Cincinnati Song Initiative and Salt Creek Song Festival. Additionally, this season, Mr. Bell makes his role debut as Marcello in La bohème, with the Borderland Arts Foundation, and joins Union Avenue Opera, taking on the dynamic role of the Baker in Into the Woods.

In the 2022-2023 season, Mr. Bell joined Pittsburgh Opera as a Resident Artist, singing the role of Boy in Denis and Katya (Venables / Huffman) and Huntsman in Rusalka. In their production of Le nozze di Figaro, he covered the Count and sang the role in a student matinée performance. Mr. Bell also joined Opera Philadelphia for a workshop of 10 Days in a Madhouse (Orth/Moscovitch) in the role of Josiah Blackwell, sang with Brooklyn Art Song Society in a concert featuring Schumann’s Liederkreis, joined Salt Creek Song Festival for a recital, and was a finalist in the Duncan Williams Voice Competition.