Rebecca Pedersen

Bountiful resident Rebecca Pedersen has been selected as one of the finalists at this year’s Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. At 21 she has been the youngest competitor in each of the three previous rounds.

A student of Darrell Babidge, Pedersen is a sophomore at Brigham Young University. She joins nine other finalists from around the country who will compete for individual cash prizes of $15,000 each.

At the finals, which take place on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, the young singers will be joined by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and conductor Marco Armiliato. The concert, which is open to the public, is on March 10 at 3 p.m. (EDT). Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, a past National Council Auditions winner, will host the concert and will also perform while the judges deliberate after the audition part of the program.

Further information on the concert and tickets are available at www.metopera.org.

On March 11 at 7 p.m. (EDT) the newly selected winners will perform a concert at the Jerome I. Greene Performance Space at New York’s classical radio station WQXR. They will be joined by Met Opera star and former National Council winner Eric Owens. There will be a live video webcast on www.wqxr.org and on www.thegreenespace.org. For more information log on to www.thegreenespace.org.

(Click here to read Ed Reichel’s interview with Rebecca Pedersen.)