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Congratulations to 2023 Rocky Mountain Region and Grand National Finals Winner Christian Simmons!

 

Chris and Karen Mohr with Christian Simmons shortly after Christian won the Grand National Finals!

Our 2023 Rocky Mountain Region Winners

 

Congratulations to the winners of the Met Opera Region Finals in Denver on February 11! The two first-place winners flew to New York for the National Semifinals, and Bass-Baritone Christian Simmons won the Grand National Finals on April 23 with the Met Orchestra! Tied for First Place in our Rocky Mountain Region were Bass-Baritone Christian Simmons (right) and soprano Hannah Shea (right). Bass Griffen Hogan Tracy won Third Place (center). Tenor Rafael Rojas Rea (left) won the Audience Choice Award as well as an Encouragement Award. Savannah Porter (left) won the Encouragement Award.

Mark your Calendars!
The CO/WY district competition will take place:
February 3, 2024 10:00AM
Calvary Baptist Church, 6500 E Girard Ave Denver, CO
The Rocky Mountain Regional Competition will take place: Febuary 10, 2024 1:30PM Cavalry Baptist Church, 6500 E Girard Ave Denver, CO

The Rocky Mountain Region now consists of more District Competitions than ever, in Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado/Wyoming.  The Region Finals brings together the absolute top singers from all six states! We are flying out out judges, renting out the Calvary Baptist Church, and generally will be busy covering all the expenses of a traditional round of auditions. Metropolitan Opera National Council Executive Director Melissa Wegner worked closely with us to get all the pieces in place again. This past year, our expenses added up to $26,000, similar to previous years. And that’s where you come in! We got to a little over $20,000 last year, bringing us to within $5000 of our goal, and well above the previous year’s $16,000. Our new goal is $26,000 for our annual expenses plus $5000 to catch up with last year ($31,000 total). We are off to a good start this season with $14,107 so far. Your involvement will help singers advance their careers!

 

 

Thank you to our Sponsors!

Galen & Ada Belle Spencer Foundation
Remembering Steve Dilts

 

Stephen Leist Dilts, MD PhD, led the Rocky Mountain Region’s Laffont Competition for the past ten years, and we all miss him dearly. He served as a board member of St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, Opera Colorado, Rocky Ridge Music Center, the Laffont Competition, and more. He devoted countless hours to the task of developing Colorado’s nonprofit music community, while also working as a volunteer at Roxborough State Park, Eldorado Canyon State Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park. Thank you Steve, for your 15 years supporting the Laffont Competition and inspiring us all!

Support the Rocky Mountain Region: Donate Now!

Donations to our organization provide prize monies for award winners and support the costs incurred in hosting both the Colorado-Wyoming District and Rocky Mountain Region rounds of the Competition. It is important to note that even though the Colorado-Wyoming District and Rocky Mountain Region are officially sanctioned by The Metropolitan Opera and feed the national competition finals, we do not receive any funding from the national office. All funds needed for the Colorado based competitions must be raised locally through the generous donations of individual opera lovers like you. 

We are very serious about doing everything we can to keep this Competition open to our local and regional singers. We recently learned that Philadelphia, a major District and home of the Curtis Institute, has had to close its doors. Let’s not allow this to happen here!

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