The College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University will hold open auditions for the 2011-12 season of the University Choral Society (UCS), a large chorus consisting of both University and community singers.

The ensemble will perform Handel’s “Messiah” with soloists and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 3 and 4 as part of the symphony’s regular season at the Toledo Museum of Art. On Feb. 25, the choral society, along with other BGSU choruses, soloists and the Bowling Green Philharmonia, will perform an opera gala program to celebrate the opening of new Wolfe Center on campus. On March 25, Toledo’s Rosary Cathedral will be the setting for a performance of Mozart’s “Requiem” with the choral society and Philharmonia. To close the season, on April 21, the UCS will perform Prokofiev’s “Alexander Nevsky” with the Lima Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Lima’s Crouse Performance Hall.

Mark Munson, director of choral activities, serves as the director of the chorus. During his 22 years at BGSU, he has led the Collegiate Chorale, A Cappella Choir and University Women’s Chorus. He is also director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra Chorus and is founder and director of the local vocal ensemble OPUS 181. During the 2005-06 school year, Munson lived in Sweden where he conducted and taught choral music. He is a past president of the Ohio Choral Directors Association.

The chorus rehearses on Tuesday evenings from 7:30-9:30 at the College of Musical Arts, with the first rehearsal scheduled for Aug. 30. For more information, and/or to schedule an audition, call the college at 419-372-2186.

(Submitted by Mark Munson)

Masters’ Student Jing Lin placed second in the Lotte Lenya Vocal Competition, held on April 16, 2011, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She was awarded $8,000.

Judges for the competition were three-time Tony Award nominee Rebecca Luker, Broadway and Encores! music director Rob Berman, and the Artistic Director of the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau, Germany, Michael Kaufmann.

The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, which sponsors the competition, distributed a record $58,000 in prizes this year. Now in its 14th year, the Lotte Lenya Competition recognizes versatile singing actors, aged 19-30, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide variety of musical theater styles. For the 2011 competition, each contestant presented a diverse program that included an aria from the opera or operetta repertoire; two songs from the American musical theater repertoire (one pre-1968 and one from 1968 or later); and a theatrical selection by Kurt Weill. After a preliminary round of auditions by video submission, twelve finalists were selected from a group of thirty semi-finalists who auditioned in New York City for adjudicator/coaches David Loud, Carolyn Marlow and Vicki Shaghoian.

Previous winners continue to land roles on major opera and theater stages around the world. In the past year, they have performed on Broadway (Zachary James, Morgan James, The Addams Family), at the Metropolitan Opera (Ginger Costa-Jackson, Nixon in China), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Rebecca Jo Loeb, Die Zauberflöte, La Traviata), Houston Grand Opera (Rodell Rosel, Madama Butterfly; Liam Bonner, Peter Grimes), New York City Center Encores! (Lauren Worsham, Amy Justman, Analisa Leaming, Where’s Charley?), Arena Stage (Ariela Morgenstern, The Light in the Piazza), Goodspeed Musicals (Lauren Worsham, Carnival!), Opera Theater of St. Louis (Christopher Herbert, A Little Night Music), Santa Fe Opera (Jonathan Michie, Albert Herring), the Kurt Weill Fest (Alen Hodzovic, Rebecca Jo Loeb), and in the 25th anniversary tour of Les Misérables (Richard Todd Adams, Cooper Grodin). Upcoming performances include featured or starring roles at the Spoleto Festival USA (Rebekah Camm, The Magic Flute), Wolf Trap Opera (Anthony McGee, Margaret Gawrysiak, Edward Mout, Sweeney Todd), Tanglewood (Margaret Gawrysiak, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9), Glimmerglass Opera (Ginger Costa-Jackson, Carmen), Opera Theater of St. Louis (Liam Bonner, Pelléas et Mélisande), Houston Grand Opera (Rodell Rosel, Ariadne auf Naxos), Geva Theatre Center (Analisa Leaming, The Sound of Music), TheatreWorks (Ariela Morgenstern, The Light in the Piazza), and on Broadway (Morgan James, Wonderland).

(Submitted by Richard Kennell )