Our 2005 winner is Deanna Breiwick. Deanna completed her undergraduate work at Mannes College of Music in New York where she studied with Ruth Falcon and Beth Roberts. She received her Masters of Music at Juilliard in May 2011. Deanna has now been accepted to the Juilliard ADOS (Artist Diploma of Opera Studies). It is a two year fully paid program that only accepted one singer in Deanna's voice type.
Deanna was a Metropolitan Opera Audition Grand Finalist last March 2011. Deanna will play the role of Sophie Scholl in November 2011 at Juilliard Opera / the U.S. premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Kommilitonen! Deanna has also accepted a cover role with The Met, and leading roles with Chicago Opera and St. Louis Opera. Deanna sang Zaide at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall last spring, and this past summer she played the role of Nanetta in Verdi's Falstaff at Aspen Music Festival.
This is from Juilliard news, October 9, 2009:
"Soprano Deanna Breiwick, a native of Seattle, is a first year master of music student studying at Juilliard with Edith Bers and is a recipient of the Florence Page Kimball Scholarship. Ms. Breiwick recently was praised for her portrayal of Sister Constance in Poulenc's 'Dialogues of the Carmelites' with Mannes Opera. Her many awards include grants from the Giulio Gari Foundation, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, and Richard F. Gold Career Grant."
And this from the The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, 2009:
"Deanna Breiwick, Soprano, 22 years of age is one of our youngest winners. She is studying at Mannes College of Music and has also studied at the International Vocal Arts Institutions in Puerto Rico, Montreal and Germany and was a Grant winner for The Giulio Gari Foundation Vocal Competition."
The last paragraph of the NY Times review includes this enjoyable critique:
"But Ms. Breiwick stole the show in the end with a masterly reading of Handel's "Saeviat Tellus Inter Rigores" (HWV 240). She positively gamboled through the ornamental thickets, emerging unscathed, and soared through the heights with seeming ease. All the same, she of all people may have been grateful for that A tuned down to 415."
