Rafael Rojas, Ani Kushyan, Dominic Domingo, Navasard Hakobyan
Eight finalists from around the world — winnowed down from some 900 contestants — performed in Houston Grand Opera’s Concert of Arias before a packed hall, the final stage of the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers. The bragging rights to one of the most prestigious titles for emerging opera talent wasn’t the only thing at stake: Winners divided $21,500 in prize money!
The first-place winner, Alabama-born-and-raised soprano Elizabeth Hanje, took home $10,000 of that herself, as well as an invitation to join the Butler Studio, the company’s renowned training program for young artists. Chinese bass-baritone Ziniu Zhao won the second prize of $5,000.
The event was also “seen worldwide via a livestreamed program hosted by acclaimed baritone Ryan McKinny, a Butler Studio alumnus and adored company favorite,” noted an HGO rep.
After the performances, guests dined on duck, with blood orange panna cotta for dessert, and mingled with contestants and the evening’s judges. The latter included Eun Sun Kim, HGO’s principal guest conductor; HGO CEO Khori Dastoor; and HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. The panel also included HGO’s artistic advisor, the soprano Ana María Martínez, who selected Brooklyn’s Sam Dhobhany, a bass-baritone, to win her annual Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award.
“There is no better distillation of HGO’s mission than the Concert of Arias,” said Dastoor of the ultimate dinner-and-a-show, which this year was chaired by Theresa and Peter Chang chaired and raised nearly $700,000 to support the Butler Studio and the company’s missions to make opera more accessible to diverse communities across Houston.
VIPs in the crowd included Nina and Michael Zilkha, Isabel and Danny David, Anne and Albert Chao, Cynthia and Tony Petrello, Molly and Jim Crownover, Betty and Jess Tutor, Dan Irion, Kirk Kveton, Karen Payne, Beth Madison, Gene Wu, Miya Shay, Duyen and Marc Nguyen, Andrew Pappas and CJ Martin.
Anne Chao, Jazmine Saunders, Albert Chao
Beth Bullock, Ken Bullock
Deidra Norris, Josepha Immanuel
Dominic Macklon, Mindy Davidson, Kelly Rose, Josh Davidson
Emily Treigle, Jim Crownover, Molly Crownover
Gretchen Watkins, Khori Dastoor, Selda Gunsel
Jason Wang, Julia Wang
Jill Risley, Allyn Risley
Michelle Papenfuss, John Warren, Mo Lovett Warren, Edwin Jhamal Davis, Jill Risley, Allyn Risley
Nicole Walters
Stephanie Weber, Paul Muri
Stephen Le, Tiffany Le, Elaine Zhang
Tate Stai, Sarah Stai, Emerson Stai, Aaron Stai, Harlan Stai
Sarah Fisher
Perhaps best known for her mixed-media portraits of friends, famous figures, and herself created out of hundreds of gold, dry-cleaning identification stickers, some of which appear in poet Robin Davidson’s book Mrs. Schmetterling, Fisher states on her website: “I record the human need to be authentically seen.” (Note: A beautiful painting of a guardian-like horse is included the exhibit. Animals need to be seen too!) The show’s title comes from a majestic self-portrait realized in carved wood, a complex composition of archetypical shapes and ideographic writing evoking the iconography of European and African spiritual practices.
Fisher is a member of the G5 Collective, a Houston-based artist collective co-founded in 2020 by University of Houston MFA graduates Liz Gates and Doug Welsh. Welsh is the curator of It’s OK To Feel This, and in a statement, cites meditation teacher and author Joseph Goldstein as one of Fisher’s key influences. “His mantra ‘It’s okay to feel this,’ has become a tool Fisher repeats in her mind during particularly challenging moments,” Welsh writes. “Through her work as a multidisciplinary artist and mindfulness student, Fisher is learning to sit with all feelings, no matter how difficult, and gently let them go.”
Housed within Holy Family HTX Episcopal Church, Lanecia Rouse Tinsley Gallery is the ideal space for Fisher’s psychologically and spiritually informed art making. In 2022, its inaugural year, the gallery exhibited an impressive range of some of Houston’s most talented artists — including Matt Manalo, Bruce Herman, Anthony Suber and Sara Triana — and presented the first of annual shows of the Holy Family HTX Artists’ Collective. It’s Okay To Feel This is on view Feb. 17 through Mar. 22, 2024.
'It's OK to Feel This'