Our 1999 winner is Elyse Nakajima. Elyse, a soprano, recently made debuts with Berkeley Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni and with West Bay Opera covering Musettain La Boheme. A 2008-2009 young artist at San Diego Opera, she toured with the Education Ensemble as Despina in Cosi fan tutte and made her mainstage debut in Don Quichotte. Additional operatic credits include Marie (La Fille du Regiment) with Seattle's N.O.I.S.E., Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) with the Martina Arroyo Foundation, Feu/Princesse/Rossignol (L'enfant et les sortileges) with Intermezzo Opera, Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito) and Romilda (Xerxes) with New York Opera Studio, and Pamina (Die Zauberflote) and Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance) with Stanford University.
Elyse Nakajima participated in the Montalto, Italy, Musica Festival in July 2011 and in the International Sommerakademie Masterclasses at Universitaet Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria, August 2011. Her recent 2011 performances include the role of Pamina (The Magic Flute, Mozart), West Bay Opera, and Blind Flower (Farangis Nurulla-Khoja) at the Stanford Pan Asian Music Festival.
Ms. Nakajima is also an active concert soloist and has performed with Schola Cantorum, Golden State Pops Orchestra, Art of Elan, Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, Bechstein Vocal Series, and St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery. She has been a finalist in the Palm Beach Opera Competition and a semi-finalist in the Florida Grand Opera Competition, and won a 2009 Career Grant from The Opera Buffs. Originally from Bellevue, WA, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree, with double majors in Music and Linguistics, from Stanford University.
Ms. Nakajima has a personal web page here: http://sites.google.com/site/elysenakajima/
