CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A voice student in the School of Music at the University of Illinois won first place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Central Region finals in Evanston, Ill., on Sunday (Nov. 7).
Ryan Milstead outperformed 10 other singers – who were winners of district auditions held in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio – to take top honors at the competition, held at the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston. Milstead sang “Hai gia vinta la causa” from Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” during the first round and “Pierrot’s Tanzlied” from Korngold’s “Die Tote Stadt” during the second round.
“Both pieces (were) exquisitely performed,” said Ricardo Herrera, who is Milstead’s applied voice teacher and a professor of voice at Illinois.
A native of Okolona, Miss., Milstead, 25, is in the second and final year of the master of music in voice performance and literature degree program.
Milstead and the winners of 13 other regional competitions will advance to the national semifinals, to be held March 6, 2011, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The winners of that competition then will advance to the finals, which will be held March 13, also in New York.
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