Meet the Finals Judges for the 2021 Jensen Competition
/The 2021 Competition Final Round are judged by this slate of internationally recognized opera professionals. These Finals Judges have graciously agreed to offer feedback to all 2021 finalists. We are grateful to Maestro Buchalter, Ms. Harmer, and Ms. Garrett for their willingness to support the Jensen Foundation and our singers.
Gregory Buchalter is the Artistic Director and conductor of Opera Fairbanks and Opera Camerata of Washington. In Fairbanks he has conducted L’Italiana in Algeri, Carmen, La Boheme, L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, Tosca, and La Cenerentola. Maestro Buchalter currently serves on the music staff at the Metropolitan Opera and was Chorus Master for the telecasts of Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Don Giovanni and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. He has also prepared several world premieres at the Met: John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, Philip Glass’ The Voyage, and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. Read more about Maestro Buchalter.
This season, soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer returns to the Utah Opera in her role debut as Elle in an English-language version of La Voix Humaine and to the Metropolitan Opera in Frau ohne Schatten. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Harmer has appeared in their productions of Le nozze di Figaro, War and Peace, Khovanshchina, Parsifal, Die Agyptische Helena, Jenufa, and the complete Ring Cycle. She also appeared in the Met’s HD broadcasts of the Ring Cycle and The Magic Flute, which have subsequently been released on DVD (Deutsche Gramophone). Other recent opera engagements have included the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos and Adalgisa in Norma at the Palm Beach Opera, Senta in Die fliegende Holländer and multiple roles in the Ring Cycle at the Seattle Opera, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at the Houston Grand Opera, Die Walküre at the San Francisco Opera, and Glauce in Medea at the Glimmerglas Festival. Ms. Harmer graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from The Boston Conservatory and attended the Music of Academy of the West. In addition to being a Jensen Competition winner, she also won the Richard Tucker Grant, the Teatro alla Scala Award, the Palm Beach Opera Competition, and the George London/Leonie Rysanek Award. Ms. Harmer is an Opus3 Artist.
Margo Garrett is an internationally acclaimed collaborative pianist, having performed on the stage and in the recording studio with such artists as Kathleen Battle, Barbara Bonney, Elizabeth Futral, the late Judith Raskin, Lucy Shelton, and Dawn Upshaw. A devoted teacher, Ms. Garrett co-directed the Collaborative Piano Department at New England Conservatory and headed the Collaborative Piano department at The Juilliard School. Ms. Garrett directed the Tanglewood Music Center vocal fellowship program and the TMC Vocal Program. In addition, she has served as Faculty Chair of The Steans Institute for Young Artists vocal programs at Chicago Symphony’s Ravinia Festival and held residencies at the Hochschule für Musik, Germany; Vancouver International Song Institute; Taiwan Normal Teacher’s University; Soochou University, China; Music Academy of the West; and Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, Germany. The American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) awarded Ms. Garrett its Most Creative Programming Award for her curation of programs for the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival.
More information about our 2021 Vocal Competition: