The Wagner College Department of Music and the Da Vinci Society host their 21st annual Italian Idol singing competition at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25.
The competition, held in the Music Performance Center in Wagner’s Campus Hall, is open to Wagner sophomore, junior and senior students who study voice. Students will compete for cash awards by singing Italian art songs and arias. A panel of opera singers, voice teachers, coaches and opera critics will serve as judges.
Prizes range from $3,000 for first place to $750 for honorable mention. The winner will also receive an offer of a substantial scholarship to the Orfeo Vocal Arts Academy summer program in Dresden, Germany, from its director, Professor Alan Dornak, a Wagner voice instructor.
Founded in 2003 by Professor Emeritus Roger Wesby, in collaboration with the Da Vinci Society, the competition began as a contest among Wagner students to celebrate Italian cultural heritage.
Over the years, the competition has grown in size and prestige. With the help of faculty, the professionals invited to judge represent the highest ranks of the community of vocal performers and teachers. Six years ago, the board of the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation donated $50,000 to the competition, which is now formally the Italian Idol Singing Competition at Wagner College in Memory of Licia Albanese.
