Singers compete for opera scholarship

The Ottawa Citizen - Wednesday, January 24, 2001

Ottawa music lovers can hear some of the area's most promising young singers performing a variety of opera arias Saturday night as they compete for the $2,000 Brian Law Opera Scholarship.

Soprano Shannon Mercer is one of three competitors who will sing arias Saturday

Baritone Luc Lalonde and sopranos Isabelle Lacroix, Anick Lamarche and Shannon Mercer will each sing three arias with piano accompaniment for a panel of judges, who will announce the winner after the performance. The young singers will perform works by composers including Mozart, Gounod, Menotti, Handel, Britten and Massenet.

The panel of judges will include soprano Mary Lou Fallis, baritone Mark Pedrotti and soprano Roxolana Roslak.

While the judges are making their decision, soprano Mary Ann Swerdfeger, who won the scholarship in 1995, will present a recital including works by Mozart, Offenbach and Bernstein.

Now based in New York City, Swerdfeger studied in Ottawa with Joan Maxwell and earned a graduate degree at the New England Conservatory. She has appeared in the United States and in Japan and has also performed in musical theatre.

The National Capital Opera Society, a group of opera-loving volunteers, established the scholarship to honour Law, a conductor who left Ottawa in 1991 to continue his career in New Zealand. In Ottawa for more than two decades, he worked with groups including Thirteen Strings, the Ottawa Symphony, the Ottawa Choral Society and Opera Lyra Ottawa.

The competition will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Congregation, 30 Cleary Ave. Tickets, at $10, will be available at the door. There will also be a reception with the singers after the competition. Contact Bobbi Cain at 225-0124.