While the Phantom of the Opera has been gaining popularity on campus, BYU’s own opera students have been hard a work off of campus. The Metropolitan Opera National Council named Rebecca Pedersen as the winner of the 2013 Rocky Mountain Region auditions and awarded Melissa Otani-Jensen the Utah award.
Rebecca Pedersen is currently a student studying under Darrell Babidge at Brigham Young University. Originally from Bountiful, Utah, Pedersen has participated in the Dolora Zaijick Institute for Dramatic Voices since 2011 and was a soloist in the Utah Symphony Salute to Youth concert in both 2010 and 2012.
Melissa Otani-Jensen grew up in Japan and Michigan and also previously studied under Darrell Babidge. She studied music at Brigham Young University and the Manhattan School of Music. In 2012, she won the undergraduate division of the Classical Singer Competition. Melissa was also a soloist in the annual Utah Symphony Salute to Youth concert in 2007.
As a regional winner, Rebecca Pedersen will be sponsored to travel to New York in March for the National Council Auditions Semifinals. There she will compete with the winners of the 14 other regions for a place as a National Council Auditions Finalist. The finalists will have the opportunity to perform in the Grand Finals Concert on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. From this performance five singers will be selected as National Council Auditions Winners, an honor given only to the finest opera singers in the nation.