BYU-Hawaii vocal students dominated the annual National Association of Teachers of Singing competition held this past Friday and Saturday at UH Manoa.
Nine out of 11 winners of the collegiate classes are BYU-Hawaii students. Of the 19 finalists, 15 are from BYU-Hawaii. In addition, Ben Tyrell won the 1st place award of $1,000 at the Morning Music Club competition held the same day.
Contestants were divided into four classes of competition, depending on their years of study and the music genre, explained Dr. James Smith, professor of music and voice instructor to several of BYUH's winning students. They were judged in a preliminary round, from which six finalists were selected to sing in a final public recital. For each class, judges then conferred first, second and third awards with cash prizes.
Results of the finals are as follows, with the BYU-Hawaii students marked with asterisks and their instructors in parenthesis:
CLASS II: (one/two years of study)
*Bayarmaa Dashdavaa (Belnap) - 1st Place (tie)
*Heather Foutz (Belnap) - 1st Place (tie)
*Heather Meese (Gorman) - 2nd Place
*Matthew Kuehnl (Belnap) - 3rd Place
*Jenna Chidester (Gorman)
*Esther Fonoimoana (Smith)
Yoko Zagorski (Mount)
CLASS III: (three years or more)
*Melissa Walker (Belnap) - 1st Place
*Maria Burnham (Gorman) - 2nd Place
Nicolette Blount (Kim) - 3rd Place
*Kristi Dudoit (Belnap)
Walter Omaha (Kim)
*Amanda Vick (Smith)
CLASS IV: (Musical Theatre)
*Stephen Lowe (Smith) - 1st Place
*Amanda Vick (Smith) - 2nd Place
*Matthew Kuehnl (Belnap) - 3rd Place (tie)
Julius Mina (Paxton) - 3rd Place (tie)
*Kanessa Powell (Belnap)
Christian Wood (Belnap)
NOTE: Class I, high school, is not shown.