Denyce Graves

At the 2021 International Opera Awards, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves received the Opera for Peace Prize in recognition of her commitment to social causes; mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton was honored with the Opera Magazine Readers’ Award, voted on by the public; the Martina Arroyo Foundation won the Philanthropy Award; and the Metropolitan Opera took home the Chorus Award.

Duke Kim

The winners of the 2021 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, formerly known as the National Council Auditions, are tenor Duke Kim, sopranos Hyoyoung Kim and Raven McMillon, and mezzo-sopranos Emily Sierra and Emily Treigle. Each artist receives a cash award of $20,000.

Erin Wagner

At the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s 2021 International Vocal Competition, mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner took first prize, which includes a cash award of $25,000, two New York concerts, and a commissioned work. Two second prizes of $12,500 each were given to mezzo-soprano Megan Moore and bass-baritone William Socolf.

Nkeiru Okoye

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition to Nkeiru Okoye to work on her new opera A Truth Before Their Eyes, based on true events of racial bias and systemic inequities in the health care system.

Among this year’s recipients of Solti Foundation Career Assistance Awards are Roberto Kalb, resident conductor and head of music at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Lidiya Yankovskaya, music director at Chicago Opera Theater.