CCM announces 2025 Opera Scholarship Competition winners

Louise Toppin has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, oratorio and recital performances world-wide. Represented by Joanne Rile Management, she toured "Gershwin on Broadway" with pianist Leon Bates. She has recorded more than eighteen commercial CDs including on Albany Records Ah love, but a day, La Saison des fleurs and Dear Friends and Gentle Hears with Darryl Taylor. Since 2021 she has published 13 scores with Classical Vocal Reprints, Carl Fischer and Hal Leonard (soon for release) including An Anthology of Undine Moore Songs, An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs, Songs of Harry Burleigh, Songs of Adolphus Hailstork, and Rediscovering Margaret Bonds. She is the publisher of the unpublished works of Julia Perry (distributed by Boosey and Hawkes).

Recent performances include: world premiere of Julia Perry’s Frammenti dalla sua lettere di Santa Caterina with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, performances with Julia Bullock and the New World Symphony, co-curated and sang festival of Black Music in Hamburg, Germany with Thomas Hampson and Larry Brownlee, performance at the U.S. Capitol for Congress and President Obama, and for the opening of the Smithsonian’s African American Heritage Museum.

She has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered; she also co-hosts the Minnesota Orchestra “Listening Project” concerts and hosts her own radio show entitled Conversations in African American music. She has been a guest on college campuses including Harvard, Yale, Duke, and many others. Co-founder and Director of the George Shirley Vocal Competition on repertoire by African American composers, and Director of Videmus (non- profit organization that promotes the concert repertoire of African American composers), she also founded the Africandiasporamusicproject.org research tool.

Previously, Dr. Toppin was the Distinguished University Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is currently University Distinguished Professor of Diversity and Social Transformation and Professor of Music (Voice), at the University of Michigan. For more information, visit www.louisetoppin.com.

Currently Music Director of the Reno Chamber Orchestra and Associate Artistic Director of American Lyric Theater, Kelly Kuo has consistently championed the development of the next generations of musical talent and demonstrated a commitment to innovative programming, creative initiatives and advocacy of underrepresented voices in the concert hall.

Praised by the Cincinnati Enquirer as “a leader of exceptional musical gifts, who has a clear technique on the podium and an impressive rapport with audiences,” Maestro Kuo brings a dynamic versatility and nuance to a diverse and expansive repertoire of both symphonic and operatic works, including over 100 operas. His affinity for interpreting contemporary scores has led him to become a trusted musical authority in the development of new works. Highlights of recent seasons included productions with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Merola Opera Program, Kentucky Opera, Opera Memphis, and Opera Columbus, and concerts with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Sunriver Music Festival, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Olympia Symphony Orchestra, and Ballet Fantastique.

In 2008, Maestro Kuo became the first conductor of Asian descent to lead a performance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, making his company debut with Porgy and Bess. He was named Emeritus Artistic Director of the Oregon Mozart Players in 2024 after having served the longest tenure in the organization’s history. Upcoming engagements include a return to Minnesota Opera (The Snowy Day) and the Merola Opera Program, and debuts at the Manhattan School of Music (Rusalka) and Central City Opera (Once Upon A Mattress).

An Oregon native and recipient of a Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistant Award, Kuo continues to concertize as a keyboardist as the only pianist to have studied with two pupils of the Russian virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz.

Renowned for her pure, luminous, rich soprano, persuasive performances and dramatic ability, Arianna Zukerman’s singing career has taken her to opera and concert stages around the world.

Notable collaborations include with conductors, Jane Glover, Lorin Maazel, Rossen Milanov, Constantine Orbelian and Ivor Bolton. She has sung at the Bavarian State Opera (Munich), New York City Opera, and the Berkshire Opera Company among others. Her relationship with symphony orchestras includes such esteemed ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic (London).Ms. Zukerman is the soloist on the critically acclaimed, GRAMMY nominated Naxos recording of James Whitbourn’s oratorio, Annelies: the first major choral setting of the Diary of Anne Frank. She has sung the work often, and notably at the New York City premiere of the work at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and with the composer conducting at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

Arianna Zukerman was born in New York City into a musical family. Her father is violinist/violist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman, her mother is flutist, writer and arts broadcaster, Eugenia Zukerman, and her sister Natalia Zukerman is an accomplished singer/songwriter and visual artist. Ms. Zukerman has chaired several noteworthy vocal programs including Wintergreen Music in Wintergreen, VA, YAA Classical: Voice, and was the Senior Director and a faculty member at the Potomac Vocal Institute in Washington, DC. She is the Manager of Artistic Administration for Opera and Classical Programming at Wolf Trap.

For more information, please visit www.ariannazukerman.com.