The Music Academy of the West has announced mezzo-soprano Dawson Mae Franzino and pianist Youngsu Cho as winners of the 2026 Marilyn Horne Song Competition, awarded to fellows of the Academy’s Lehrer Vocal Institute.

The competition, held at the Academy’s Miraflores campus as part of the Summer Music Festival & School, had each fellow perform three art songs of their choice, with one singer and one pianist each receiving a $2,500 prize. Franzino and Cho were selected by a panel that included pianist and vocal coach Kirill Kuzmin, an Associate Professor of Opera and Vocal Coaching at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music; Carrie Ann Matheson, Artistic Director of the San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program; and tenor Alek Shrader.

The Marilyn Horne Song Competition was founded in 1997 by mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, a Music Academy alumna who served as the Academy’s Director of Voice for more than two decades, per an official press release. The competition is open to vocal and vocal piano fellows, who are paired through a random drawing at the start of the summer and develop a joint recital program under the event’s repertoire guidelines.

The Music Academy of the West’s 2026 Summer Music Festival & School ran from June 17 to August 8, 2026.

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