Last modified: Wednesday, April 24, 2002
IU music student among winners in Metropolitan Opera competition
Soprano Twyla Robinson, an Indiana University School of Music graduate student from Denham Springs, La., was one of five winners in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York City on April 21. She will receive $15,000.
This is the second consecutive year that IU School of Music students were among the winners in the prestigious competition. Last year the five winners included tenor Lawrence Brownlee and soprano Kristine Winkler, both from IU.
Robinson, 31, was among the 10 finalists selected in competition on April 14. She won the Met's Pacific Regional competition in San Francisco.
Robinson recently completed an Adler Fellowship with the San Francisco Opera and plans to return to IU this summer to complete work for her master's degree. In 1999, she participated in the Merola Opera Program and the Western Opera Theater tour of Don Giovanni, singing the roles of Donna Anna and Donna Elvira. This summer she is scheduled to reprise the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Pine Mountain Festival.
Robinson has won several awards, including first place in the FeBland Singing Competition and second place in the MacAllister Competition's Professional Division. More information about her is available at her Web site at https://www.twylajrobinson.com.
Robinson, along with last year's IU winners Brownlee and Winkler, is a student of School of Music Professor Costanza Cuccaro. Cuccaro, a past winner in the Met National Auditions, enjoyed an international career performing leading lyric-coloratura roles in the major opera houses of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Colon, and the Berlin, Munich and Vienna State Operas.
Robinson's award-winning performance, along with the rest of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, can be heard May 5 at 7 p.m. on Bloomington's WFIU radio, 103.7 FM.
