Senior Receives 'Encouragement Award' at Metropolitan Opera Auditions

October 12, 2010

October 12, 2010, Greencastle, Ind. — Andrea J. Spencer, a senior performance major in the DePauw University School of Music, was the recipient of an Encouragement Award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions for Southern Ohio. The competition took place last weekend at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.

Encouragement Awards are presented to singers of promising talent, but recipients do not advance to the next round of the competition, the regional auditions in Chicago.

Spencer is a student of Pamela Coburn, James B. Stewart Distinguished Professor of Music and 1974 graduate of the University. 

"Andrea was competing against older and more experienced singers, and this recognition is rarely given to someone as young as she is," says Professor Coburn, a renowned soprano herself. "It's safe to say the Met has its eye on her, and I'm very proud of her."

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is a program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers. The auditions are held annually in fourteen regions of the United States and Canada. There are forty-one districts within these regions, each providing an opportunity for talented singers to enter the auditions program at the local level. The Auditions are administered by National Council members and volunteers in each region.

Visit the DePauw School of Music online.

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