AAMF Scholarship Winners

Francesca Lunghi, 2007 Arleen Auger Fund scholarship Winner

Jennifer Harris, 2006 Career Development Grant recipient

Amanda Grooms, 2006 Most Promising Singer Award Winner

Daniel Holmes - Tenor, 2005 Career Development Grant recipient

Fenna Ograjensek - Mezzo-Soprano, March 2004 recipient

The Auger Fund is proud to announce that mezzo soprano Fenna Ograjensek is our first full scholarship winner of 2004. Ms. Ograjensek is currently studying voice at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City.

Mezzo-soprano Fenna Ograjensek (1979) was born in Hulsberg, a small town in the south of the Netherlands. After pre-college at the Jeanne d'Arc College Maastricht, she studied classical saxophone, voice and opera at the Conservatorium Maastricht. Her teachers were Mr. Adri van Velsen (saxophone), Ms. Ingrid Kappelle and Ms. Yvonne Schiffelers (voice and opera). Beginning September 2002 she studied at the Juilliard School in New York with Ms. Edith Bers (Graduate Diploma) where she graduated in the class of 2004.

Fenna has performed in several Conservatory opera productions and with the Dutch opera company Opera Zuid. She appeared in 'Die Zauberflöte - Mozart (Zweite Dame and Dritte Dame)', 'Così fan tutte - Mozart (Dorabella)', 'Le Nozze di Figaro - Mozart (Cherubino)', 'Dido and Aeneas - Purcell (Sorceress, 2^nd Witch and Spirit)', 'La Fanciulla del West - Puccini (Wowkle)', 'L'Orfeo - Monteverdi (Proserpina)' and 'The Consul - Menotti (Vera Boronel)'. She frequently performs in oratorio such as 'Kantate no. 170 - Bach', 'Die Krönungsmesse - Mozart', 'Great Mass - Mozart', 'Oratorio de Noël - Saint-Saëns' and 'Israël in Egypt - Händel'. 20^th Century and song are also on her repertoire. She performed 'Pierrot Lunaire - Schönberg' and in August 2002 she sang Maria Maddalena in the staged world premier of Sciarrino's 'Infinito Nero'. In January 2002 she sang 'the Rückertlieder - Mahler' with the Nederlands Promenade Orchestra. Fenna has worked with conductors such as Ed Spanjaard, Jan Stulen, James Lockheart, Robert Hollingworth, Steven Osgood, Craig Jessop and Stewart Robertson. Last December Fenna participated in the Wednesday at One Vocal Arts recital in Alice Tully Hall singing songs from 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn'. She has also participated in master classes by Ernst Haefliger, Rudolph Piernay, Leontyne Price, Malcolm Martineau and Ned Rorem. In March 2004 she was awarded the 2004 Arleen Auger Memorial Fund Scholarship. In May 2004 she made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in the Mozart Requiem with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. The summer of 2003, Ms. Ograjensek attended the Marlboro Music School in Vermont where she worked with Ken Noda and Benita Valente. For the 2003-2004 season Fenna was part of the Juilliard Vocal Quartet, coached by Mr. Brian Zeger. She was Prince Orlofsky in 'Die Fledermaus' with the Juilliard Opera Theater in February 2004. Last summer (2004) Fenna was a Studio Artist at Central City Opera.

Currently a Young Artist at Florida Grand Opera in Miami, Fenna is performing in 'Trouble in Tahiti - Bernstein (Dinah)', 'Madama Butterfly - Puccini (Kate Pinkerton)', 'Paul Bunyan -Britten (Alto in the quartet of the defeated)', 'Die Zauberflöte - Mozart (Dritte Dame)' and 'Lucia di Lammermoor - Donizetti (Alisa)'. At the end of the season Fenna will be featured in the Young Artist Scene Showcase as Dulcinea in Don Quichotte and Maddalena in Rigoletto.

For the summer of 2005 Fenna will return to Central City Opera to cover Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and she will be performing Moppet/1st Wild Goose in Paul Bunyan.

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Laquita Mitchell - Soprano, December 2003 recipient

Jack Vartoogian for the New York Times

Laquita Mitchell, a winner Sunday in the Met's competition for young singers.

Some Opera Stars of Tomorrow Vying for Career Jump-Start

Music Review by Jeremy Eichler, The New York Times Tuesday, March 23, 2004

To say that youth rules the day in the world of pop culture is to state the obvious, but things work differently in a land of opera. Voices require years to mature and settle, and even when an artist feels ready to start singing before the public, it takes time to get noticed. This is with the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions come in. For 50 years they have provided a vehicle for this transitional stage in an artist's career. Young vocalists from across United States and Canada compete, and the finalists to get the chance to sing on the Met's stage. The winners don't get instant "American Idol"-esque fame, but each gets $15,000 and often a significant boost in their careers. This year's Grand Finals Concert took place on Sunday afternoon as seven young singers, selected from a pool of 1,500, performed to all arias each, accompanied by Marco Armiliato and the Met Orchestra. After intermission the seven judges deliberated privately - no Simon-style public shaming here - while the audience was entertained by a starry group of former National Council participants: Samuel Ramey, Hei-Kyung Hong, Deborah, Voigt, Dolora Zajick and Thomas Hampson, who sang with one of last year's winners, the soprano Alyson Cambridge. At the end of the event the afternoon's host, Beverly Sills, announced the three winners. No quibbles from this critic - each of them had performed well - but the talent level was high across-the-board, so the selection process could not have been easy. The first winner, Laquita Mitchell, a 27-year-old soprano, had set the ball extremely high by opening the concert with a sure-voiced and agile rendition of "Non disperar" from Handel's "Giulio Cesare." She later returned with a melting "Adieu, notre petite table", from Massenet's "Manon." Ms. Mitchell's technique was impressively mature, and her voice was powerful for her age, but her sense of self-possession also made her stand out as if she did not need any committee of judges to tell her that she was a diva.

Soprano Laquita Mitchell receives our top award from the Fund's Treasurer, GUY P. NOVO.

Ms. Mitchell is currently a member of Houston Grand Opera's prestigious Young Artists Studio.

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Elona Çeno - Soprano, 2003 recipient

Soprano Elona Çeno received her initial music education in her native Albania. She is a graduate of the prestigious High School for the Arts in Jordan Misja and earned her Bachelor's degree at the Academy of Arts in Tirana. While an undergraduate, Ms. Çeno sang in numerous concerts at Tirana's Hall of Opera and Ballet, including performing as soprano soloist in Boccherini's Stabat Mater.

In opera, she has sung the roles of Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the National Opera House in Tirana, and Elisetta in Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio segreto at the Academy of Arts. Her repertoire of completely prepared operatic roles includes Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata, Sofia in Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino, and Mozart's Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni).

She won First Prize in the Third Annual Marie Kraja International Competition in April 2001, Second Prize in the Albanian Romances Competition in May of that year, and was a finalist in Albania's New Voices Competition.

At present Ms. Çeno is in her second year as a Professional Studies Degree candidate and scholarship recipient at the Mannes College of Music in New York. She studies with eminent vocal pedagogue Ruth Falcon.

Kreshnik Zhabjaku - Baritone, June 2001 recipient

At the age of twelve, Kreshnik Zhabjaku won First Prize in Albania's prestigious "Young Voices" competition. He graduated from the Professional Artistic Lyceum Jordan Misja and received his graduate degree as a professional singer from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana. He went on to perform in numerous concerts in Albania's largest cities with their most outstanding orchestras. He also performed throughout Europe during this period.

Last season, Mr. Zhabjaku sang the role of the hero Aeneas for the first time in a new production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the One World Symphony in New York City and gave a "command performance" at the German Consulate in New York of Beethoven's six-song cycle An die ferne Geliebte. Most recently, the young baritone made his American oratorio début as soloist in Händel's Messiah with the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Markand Thakar.

Mr. Zhabjaku was featured soloist in a highly acclaimed all-Schumann program, works by Robert and Clara, at New York's Weill Hall in 2003. As a student, he performed many operatic roles including Mozart and Rossini's Figaro and Don Giovanni, and was baritone soloist in numerous recitals and concerts. Mr. Zhabjaku was the first student to appear on the stage of the Albanian National Opera House (Massetto) in a special production of Mozart's Don Giovanni for the Austrian Minister of Culture. He also sang the leading role of Gaudenzio at the Albanian National Opera House in their premiere of Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino.

Among his many honors and distinctions, Mr. Zhabjaku appeared by special invitation in concerts at the Music University of Vienna and in Annecy, France; he participated in the masters series on old Andalusian Music in Marseilles; and won First Prize as "Best Young Singer" in Art Song Performance in Albania's national competition.

Abel K. Moeng - Bass-Baritone, January 2001 recipient

photo: John Hart