Shorter College Graduate Jamie Barton Wins Metropolitan Opera’s 2007 Young Opera Singers Competition

Jamie Barton, a 2004 graduate of Shorter College, is one of six winners of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2007 National Council Auditions, a program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers. The winners were announced at the end of the grand finals, which were held Sunday, April 1, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, N.Y., and were broadcast live nationwide over National Public Radio.

As a winner of the National Council Auditions, Ms. Barton received a $15,000 cash award and the opportunity to audition with the Metropolitan Opera, one of the world’s premiere opera companies, once per year during the next three years. At each audition, Ms. Barton will be eligible to receive an additional $5,000 award. The purpose of these follow-up auditions is to give the Metropolitan Opera an opportunity to follow the vocal development of their winners.

The grand finals were the fourth of four levels of competition that made up the National Council Auditions. The winners were chosen from nearly 1,500 singers who participated in the auditions, which are sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council in 45 districts and 15 regions throughout the United States and Canada. Ms. Barton first won the district level competition for the state of Indiana; she then claimed the Tri-State title for a region covering Southern Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. At the semi-finals held on Sunday, March 25, she was named one of 11 finalists from across the nation.

A native of Armuchee, Ga., Ms. Barton earned her Bachelor of Music degree in voice performance from Shorter College in 2004. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in voice performance at Indiana University. At Shorter and during her first year at Indiana, she studied with Dr. Brian Horne. She currently studies voice with Mary Ann Hart, professor of music at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and chair of IU’s Department of Voice.

Ms. Barton will make her professional operatic debut in the summer of 2007 as Annina in La Traviata with Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Recent engagements include Mrs. Soames in the world premiere of Rorem’s Our Town, Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Tisbe in La Cenerentola, all with Indiana Opera Theatre. She recently won third place in the Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition and will join the Houston Grand Opera Studio in the fall of 2007.

Ms. Barton is the fifth Shorter College music graduate to win the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions. Other winners include Jacquelyn Benson-Kenley, Shorter College Class of 1968; Phebe Odom Settles, Shorter Class of 1971; Indra Thomas, Shorter Class of 1993; and Theresa Hamm-Smith, Shorter Class of 1996. These winners all studied voice with longtime Shorter College music faculty member Dr. John Ramsaur.

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