2020 Scholarship Award Winners
A native of northern Minnesota, Chris Kenney studied at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota and The University of Kentucky. Chris has performed with the Santa Fe Opera, Central City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and numerous other venues across the world. He recently made his stage debut at the Washington National Opera main stage as Figaro in The Barber Of Seville. Chris is a graduate of the Ryan Opera Center.
Christopher Kenney, Baritone
2020 American Opera Society of Chicago Best Vocal Artist Award
Second-year Ryan Opera Center bass Anthony Reed is an alumnus of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Merola Opera Program. Anthony is a former Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera, and recently sang with Annapolis Opera and North Carolina Master Chorale. He has performed with GRAMMY Award-winning symphonies and some of the world’s most esteemed conductors including Nicola Luisotti, and Donald Runnicles.
2020 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award in honor of Elizabeth W. Lewis
Anthony Reed, Bass
Diana Dohyung Kim, Violin
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Diana began playing violin at the age of four. She attended the Yale School of Music, Juilliard, and has studied under I-Hao Lee and Janet Sung at the DePaul University School of Music, all on full scholarships. Diana has performed in prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. She has been awarded the Grand Prize for the Korean Times Young Artists Competition and the CW Post Festival Concerto Competition, as well as winning both the 2019 Concerto Competition and the 2019 Chamber Music Competition at the DePaul University School of Music.
2020 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award
2020 American Opera Society of Chicago Lola Fletcher Scholarship Award
David Weigel, Bass-Baritone
David Weigel is a third-year artist at Lyric Opera’s Ryan Opera Center. A native of Asheville, North Carolina, David is an alumnus of Furman University (Bachelor of Music), the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Master of Music), the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Professional Artist Certificate), and the University of Michigan (Doctor of Musical Arts)..
2020 American Opera Society of Chicago Eileen Deneen Scholarship Award
Jacqueline Piccolino, Soprano
Robyn Neidhold, Cello
2020 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award
Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as having "impeccable technique and stage presence,” Jacqueline Piccolino was chosen as a member of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program. Among many awards, she recently won the Rose Grundman Award from the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago. Jacqueline holds a Bachelors of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music. Previously an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera, a participant in the Merola Opera Program and the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy, Ms. Piccolino’s many career highlights include performing with Seattle Opera.
Robyn Neidhold has performed professionally since age thirteen, when she auditioned for and won a contract with the Reno Philharmonic Association. Robyn is the only cellist to have won Command Performance at the NMEA All-State Conference in Nevada four years in a row. She has attended nationally known summer programs including Meadowmount, Tanglewood, Music at Menlo, and Sitka International Cello Seminar. She is a recent graduate of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Eric Kim, performed with Joshua Bell, and performed Krzysztof Penderecki’s St Luke Passion with Penderecki himself. Robyn is completing her Masters Degree of Music, studying with Hans Jensen at Northwestern University.