A large and supportive audience was present on Saturday morning, April 8, 2023 at the James Lorah Memorial House in Doylestown to hear four outstanding young singers have a public voice lesson with master teacher Suzanne DuPlantis. The winner this year was Jackson Manning from Central Bucks West HS, pictured above alongside finalists Helena Badiali from Central Bucks East HS, Janki Namboodiripad from Pennsbury HS, and Olivia Garland from Neshaminy HS. Scholarship sponsors Alice and Bob Vernon stand alongside. This year’s winner, Jackson Manning, will be a featured soloist at our June 4 season finale concert.
VOICES OF THE FUTURE is a classical singing competition sponsored by the Bucks County Choral Society for students in grades 9-12 who live or attend school in Bucks County. Prior first place winners are ineligible to re-apply. 2024 will be the seventh year of the competition.
Each year, following the recording and application submission, four finalists are be invited to perform in a live master class with a master voice teacher. At the conclusion of the master class, $2,500 in cash prizes are be presented: $1,000 for first place and $500 for each of the three runners-up.
NEXT YEAR’s competition
Check back here for the Spring 2024 deadline for next year’s competition. Each application must include uploaded MP3 or video recordings of the applicant performing two classical vocal selections – one in English and one in a foreign language or one classical piece and one piece from the “Golden Age” of musical theater.
Voices Of The Future Application Form (email to info@buckschoral.org)
Our 2023 master teacher was SUZANNE DUPLANTIS, a widely appreciated artist in the Philadelphia region who is noted for her moving renditions and her intimate way with an audience, “DuPlantis deeply imprints the music with her personality with great emotional underpinning” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). She made her New York debut in the at Alice Tully Hall with Musica Sacra in Bach’s St. John Passion, and her Kimmel Center debut in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Orchestra 2001. Her career in opera spanned debuts
with companies across America in roles from Rossini’s heroines Rosina and Isabella, Carmen to Waltraute. In oratorio, chamber music and song, Suzanne has appeared with many of Philadelphia’s premiere music organizations including The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble, Bucks County Choral Society, Singing City, The Wister Quartet, and Orchestra 2001. She has premiered many new works written especially for her, including by Kile Smith, Andrea Clearfield, Robert Maggio, Roxanna Panufnik, Logan Skelton, Allen Krantz and Benjamin C.S. Boyle. She recorded Brian Gaber’s Ancestral Waters for mezzo, orchestra and jazz trio, and has released her new CD of American Songbook Standards, Lazy Afternoon – Songs of Love and the South. Suzanne is also founder and Artistic Director of Lyric Fest. With a passionate commitment to song, and a belief in its power to reach all listeners, Suzanne enjoys sharing this vision with Lyric Fest audiences in novel and dynamic ways: as a singer; in creative program curating; in writing program notes and scripts; through graphic design, and by creating song movies for Lyric Fest.