2024 Scholarship Award Winners
Travon D. Walker is an ensemble member of the Ryan Opera Center of Lyric Opera of Chicago. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Rice University. He has participated in Joyce DiDonato Masterclasses at Carnegie Hall and has been A Young Artist in SongStudio there. He has also been a member of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme - English Song Course, and a Studio Artist at Wolf Trap Opera. Recently he won the Cesare Santeramo Award in the Opera Index Voice Competition.
Travon D. Walker, Tenor
2024 American Opera Society of Chicago Best Vocal Artist Award
Clark Snavely is a student at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, where he serves as co-concertmaster of the MIC Academy Chamber Orchestra. He studies with Almita Vamos. He has also served as concertmaster of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. Among his many awards are Winner of the violin division in the De Paul National Concerto Competition, First Prize and Haydn Prize in the St. Paul String Quartet Competition, and the Early Music Prize in the Walgreens National Concerto Competition.
2024 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award
Clark Snavely, Violin
Sadie Cheslak, Mezzo-Soprano
Sadie Cheslak is completing a Post Masters Certificate in Performance at DePaul University, where she studies with Dr. Linda Di Fiore. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. She has been a member of the Hans and Leslie Fleischner Young Artist Program with the Pittsburg Festival Opera and an Apprentice Artist at the Berkshire Choral International. This summer she will be a Studio Artist at Wolf Trap Opera. Recently, in the NAT Artists Awards, she won the James Browning and Dorothy Kirsten Award for Most Promising Voice of the Competition. She also won Musicians Club of Women Virginia Cooper Maier Award.
2024 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award in honor of Joyce Van Cura
Christopher Humbert, Jr., Bass-Baritone
Christopher Humbert, Jr. is an ensemble member of the Ryan Opera Center of Lyric Opera of Chicago. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Capital University in Ohio and a Masters of Music in Opera Performance from Boston Conservatory. He has been a Benenson Young Artist with the Palm Beach Opera, an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, and an Emerging Artist with the Seagle Festival. A District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, he has appeared with Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Conservatory Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Annapolis Opera, and Detroit Opera. Solo concert engagements include the Erie Philharmonic, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Carnegie Hall.
2024 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award in honor of Elizabeth W. Lewis
Sophia Maekawa, Mezzo-Soprano
An ensemble member of the Ryan Opera Center of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Sophia Maekawa holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. She has been a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist and a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Her most recent awards are VanderLaan Prize Finalist in the Opera Grand Rapids Competition and semi-finalist in the Houston Grand Opera: Eleanor McCollum Competition. This summer she will join the Aspen Music Festival as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro.
2024 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award in honor of Mary Jane Peterson
Uma Singh will complete her Master of Music degree this spring at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. She studies with Karen Brunssen. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan and has studied at the Collaborative Piano Institute Vocal Academy in Baton Rouge, LA. She has been a Studio Artist with the Chautauqua Opera Company, and this summer will join the Central City Opera as a Bonfils-Stanton Studio Artist. Recent awards include Illinois District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the Turano Family Scholarship of the Casa Italia Vocal Scholarship Competition, and a Musicians Club of Women Farwell Award.