Luther College alumnus wins regional Metropolitan Opera competition

2006 Luther College graduate Emily Fons has won first place at the Upper Midwest Region Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions for 2009-10.

The achievement means Fons will advance to the National Semi-Finals March 7th in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera.

Luther senior Jill Phillips was named the third-place winner. Andrew Stenson, a 2008 Luther grad, also competed at the Region Finals.

At Luther, Fons studied under professors of music Karen Kanakis, Jessica Paul and Edwin Andereck. She also was a winner of the college's Alan and Sally Brudos Opera Prize.

The Met auditions, a national competition designed to discover the best young opera talent, is open to singers age 20-30 years.

The National Semi-Finals competition, held on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, selects approximately 10 of the semi-finalists as national finalists who compete in the Grand Finals Concert, accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Five of those semi-finalists are then chosen to receive grand prize awards of $15,000 each. The concert is broadcast nationwide on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Network.

Eric Cutler, a 1999 graduate of Luther, was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1998. He has become an internationally know tenor, winning the Richard Tucker Award in 2005.

(Pictured above, left to right): Third-place winner Jill Phillips, encouragement winner Jesse Enderle, first-place winner Emily Fons, judge Joshua Major.