F. PAUL DRISCOLL OF OPERA NEWS + YOUNG AWARD-WINNING PERFORMERS

Must RSVP by the Friday before

$55 admission includes a three-course lunch payable at the door by cash or check only

Vocal competitions play a crucial role in the lives of young singers, offering financial assistance and professional exposure to talented artists at the beginning of their careers. How do singers prepare for competitions?  How do they choose their competition arias and songs? For an insider’s view of the competition process, join us for an afternoon of music and conversation with F. Paul Driscoll, former editor in chief of Opera News, and two of the Gerda Lissner Foundation’s recent prize winners, mezzo-soprano Anna Kelly and tenor Cole McIlquham. 

F. Paul Driscoll

Interviewer, editor, and author specializing in arts and culture. Editor in Chief of OPERA NEWS from 2003 through 2023, he began contributing to the magazine in 1990 and joined the editorial staff as managing editor in 1998. Beginning in 2020, Mr. Driscoll was executive producer of Sight Lines, OPERA NEWS’s online interview series, in which he hosted conversations with notables from the worlds of opera, dance, theater and classical music. From 2006 through 2023, he was executive producer of the annual gala for the OPERA NEWS Awards, created to honor distinguished achievement in opera. A native of Manhattan, Mr. Driscoll is an alumnus of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. He received an honorary doctorate from Manhattan School of Music in 2016.

Cole McIlquham

Tenor Cole McIlquham is a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia where he is frequently seen in leading roles throughout their season. This summer he will join the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. He has made appearances with Des Moines Metro Opera, Wichita Symphony Orchestra, Wichita Grand Opera, Meadows Lyric Opera, and Music Academy of the West. Cole is also a grant recipient from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, a two-time Naftzger Concerto Competition Vocal Winner, and the winner of the Meadows Concerto Competition. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota and Wichita State University.

Anna Kelly

Mezzo-soprano Anna Kelly, a 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition semifinalist, is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and a second-year Artist Diploma student at the Juilliard School, where she will perform Hänsel in Hansel und Gretel this season. Later this season, she performs as the alto soloist with the Phoenix Symphony for Messiah and with the Glacier Symphony for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. Recent engagements include covers work with the Santa Fe Opera covering as Waltraute (Die Walküre), and Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), and performances as Mére Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites (Juilliard Opera), Dorabella in Opera Saratoga’s Così fan tutte and Federica (Luisa Miller) at Sarasota Opera, where she also covered the title role in Carmen.

Gerald Steichen, Pianist & Musical Director

Gerald Steichen has conducted performances around the world - ranging from La bohème at New York City’s Lincoln Center to New Years Eve concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic; the original production of Cats on Broadway to operatic concerts in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has appeared live on The Today Show and Good Morning America. In ten seasons with New York City Opera, Steichen led L’elisir d’amore, Dead Man Walking, The Little Prince, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Cinderella; a live WQXR broadcast from New York’s Symphony Space, and appeared onstage for Porgy and Bess and Carmina Burana. Other operatic engagements: Utah, Virginia, Anchorage, Longview, New Jersey, and Glimmerglass Operas. Broadway credits include National tours of The King and I, The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden, Peter Pan and Master Class on Broadway.