Scott Conner wins Loren L. Zachary Competition

Scott Conner

Baritones and basses continue to dominate vocal competitions, as bass Scott Conner took away the top prize at the Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition over the weekend. Earlier this year, Conner won the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition. A District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Conner has been a finalist in the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, and was named a Gold Winner in Voice by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA).

He is an Artist in Residence at the Academy of Vocal Arts where he has performed the title role in Don Giovanni, Colline in La bohème, La Roche in Capriccio, Oroveso in Norma, First Man in the world premiere of Scarlet Letter. the Four Villains in Les contes d'Hoffmann, the title role in Verdi's Oberto, and Dulcamara in L'elsir d'amore.

Two other barihunks walked away with top prizes, as Eugene Brancoveanu and Wes Mason also won prizes. Brandon Cedel, who was an early favorite to win the competition, had to withdraw due to illness. Other winners this year included, mezzo Olivia Vote, soprano Chloe Moore, soprano Anush Avetisyan, tenor Viktor Antipenko, tenor Benjamin Bliss and soprano Anna-Lisa Hackett.

Scott Conner sings "Fin ch'han dal vino" from Don Giovanni:

A number of barihunks have walked away with top prizes at the Loren L. Zachary competition in past years, including Zachary Nelson and Brandon Cedel in 2011, Donovan Singletary and Jonathan Beter in 2010, Kelly Markgraf in 2009 and Matt Trevino in 2007.

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BREAKING NEWS: Brandon Cedel wins George London Competition

Brandon Cedel & Jonathan Beyer as seen in the Barihunks calendar

Brandon Cedel, who appears in our 2012 Barihunks charity calendar with his partner fellow barihunk Jonathan Beyer, has won the 2012 George London Foundation Competition. Jonathan Beyer won the competition last year with his rendition of  “News has a kind of mystery” from John Adams’s “Nixon in China.” Cedel won this year's competition singing a piece written 150 years earlier, "Vi ravviso o luoghi ameni" from La Sonnambula.

Beyer shot to fame after winning a series of vocal competitions, which we covered on our site. Cedel seems to be following the same path, as he also won the The Canstatter Foundation prize at the Liederkranz Foundation Vocal Competition last month.

Past winners of the George London competition have included mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, soprano Renée Fleming and tenor Matthew Polenzani.

 Cedel can next be seen performing the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Granada Theater with Opera Santa Barbara.

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Four-Time Emmy Award-Winner Glen Roven's Barihunk Concert and CD's

Branch Fields

The Winter Rhythms Festival, which runs from December 1-11 in New York City is a series of concerts that includes Cabaret, Jazz, Hip Hop, Broadway and Classical Music. On December 5th, the festival will include "I Hate Music: The Songs and Music of Glen Roven" with barihunks Chris Herbert and Branch Fields. The baritones will be joined by opera diva Lauren Flanigan, the Broadway Youth Ensemble, TV actor and Broadway star Jeff McCarthy, OBIE Award-winner Donna Lynne Champlin, jazz vocalist Luba Mason, award-winning singer Nikolas King and opera tenor Matthew Garrett.

Christopher Herbert

Christopher Herbert will be performing one of Roven's most beautiful songs, "Upon Westminster Bridge" with words by William Wordsworth. Branch Fields will be performing Mozart's "Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni. For tickets call (212) 868-4444 or visit Smarttix.com. Urban Stages is located at 259 West 30th Street in Manhattan.

Fans of Christopher Herbert can also catch him with New York Polyphony, which will be performing in Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Minnesota during December. Check out their website for touring information. We can assure you that this is an ensemble that you won't want to miss.

Glen Roven has also recently wrapped up an innovative new CD of viola songs with barihunk and winner of numerous vocal competitions, Jonathan Beyer, (with a special guest appearance by his partner Brandon Cedel) on the GPR label. The CD is available for pre-order at the GPR website. GPR also has barihunk Daniel Okulitch's CD of great American composers available for sale. There is a special discount if you order both CDs.

Also, Christopher Herbert, Jonathan Beyer and Brandon Cedel are all featured in our 2012 Barihunks charity calendar, with all proceeds going to benefit young artist programs. Buy yours today by clicking HERE!

Come from behind Opera Couple?: Still time to vote (Also apologies to another couple and Schrott's new hair)

Talented, Competitive & Sexy: Jonathan Beyer & Brandon Cedel 

We've always known that Jonathan Beyer is competitive and a winner. In fact, we've blogged about his penchant for winning major voice competitions, usually be nailing John Adams' "News has a kind of mystery..." from "Nixon in China." We had a difficult time finding some video, but you can click HERE and listen to "News..." and other arias sung by Beyer.

Apparently, that competitiveness is playing out in our "Favorite Opera Couple" competition, as he and his baritone partner Brandon Cedel have made a stunning leap into first place. You can listen to Cedel HERE.

Today is the last day to vote, so make sure to let us know who your favorite opera couple is. In the meantime, we'll keep searching for a Beyer/Cedel video. 

Also, we received some pointed emails asking why Patricia Racette and Beth Clayton weren't included in the poll. It was an unfortunate oversight. To make up for the error, here they are as part of the "It Gets Better" campaign:



We also received some email about Erwin Schrott's hair, particularly if the photo we used was recent. The photo is from an event last weekend and the popular barihunk is indeed a blond now. Here's a better picture.

Baritones Continue Vocal Competition Dominance: Lattanzi, Cedel & O'Hanlon

Joseph Lattanzi sporting some Brooks Brothers clothing

We ran a post last month called "The Golden Age of Baritones is Now," in which we pointed out that baritones are dominating vocal competitions, stages and marketing campaigns like at no other time in history. The trend seems to be continuing in competitions much smaller than the Met Auditions, as well. Half of the finalists in the Palm Beach Opera’s vocal competition junior division (ages 18 to 23) were baritones. 

Brandon Cedel & Emmett O'Hanlon

The three baritones include Joseph Lattanzi, who we've previously featured on this site, Emmett O’Hanlon, and Brandon Cedel, who happens to be the other half of a barihunk couple. His partner is Jonathan Beyer, who we've been praising for his seemingly effortless ability to win vocal competitions. Apparently, it's rubbing off on Cedel. 

Other winners included soprano Danielle Adams, tenor Marco Stafani and soprano Betsy Diaz. The six finalists will be ranked and awarded $47,000 in prizes during an orchestral concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Kravis Center. For information, call 833-7888 or visit pbopera.org.

Lattanzi has put together a new website and was recently accepted into the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, one of our favorite in the country. Lattanzi will be joining two of our favorite young barihunks in Seattle, Erik Anstine and David Krohn, who are respectively playing Leporello and Don Giovanni in the current YAP production of the Mozart opera. 

Amanda Opuszysnki and Erik Anstine (©Rozarii Lynch photo)

When we posted about Joseph Lattanzi a year ago, we predicted that he might have a future on this site and apparently we were right. We would like to wish all of the finalists in the PBO junior division vocal competition the best of luck with their careers. 

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

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