Patricia Racette | 1988 Winner
Born and raised in New Hampshire, Ms. Racette studied jazz and music education at North Texas State University. She is winner of the prestigious 1998 Richard Tucker award. Ms. Racette maintains strong relationships with the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera (where she is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program and a former Adler Fellow), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera. Seen regularly at these houses, her many roles have included the title roles in Jenufa, Luisa Miller, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, and Kátya Kabanová; all three lead soprano roles in Il Trittico, Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, Mimi and Musetta in La Bohème, Nedda in Pagliacci, Marguerite in Faust, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Elisabetta in Don Carlos, Ellen Orford and in Peter Grimes.