The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts has announced the 2025 National Finalists in opera, art song, and oratorio for the Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Awards in Voice.

The announcement was made by founder and chief judge David (Volosin) Katz.

The Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award honors the legacy of Friedrich Schorr, widely regarded as one of the greatest Wagnerian baritones of the interwar period, and his wife Virginia Schorr, who taught studio voice for nearly five decades at the Manhattan School of Music and the Hartt School of Music. Finalists are selected through submitted recordings and are evaluated individually in relation to the judges’ artistic ideals, as The American Prize does not set a predetermined number of finalists in any category.

In the professional opera division, the 2025 national finalists are Chantal Braziel of Pittsburgh, AnnaMaria Cardinalli of Santa Fe, Carly Cummings of San Diego, Robert Ellsworth Feng of Kailua, Melina Jaharis of New York, Cody Linder of Watertown, Natasha Novitskaia of Orlando, and Stacey Stofferahn of Kansas City. In the college and university opera division, finalists include William Bolin of Lake Forest, Maya Hussein of Brooklyn, Ingrid Kuribayashi of Princeton, Xinyi Liu of Branford, Penelope Rachael Teague of Tulsa, Caitlin M. Towell of Glen Carbon, and Congcong Wang of Miami.

National finalists in the professional women’s art song and oratorio division are Chantal Braziel of Pittsburgh, AnnaMaria Cardinalli of Santa Fe, Carly Cummings of San Diego, Bonnie Cutsforth-Huber of State College, Leslie Jacobson Kaye of Wayland, Sarah Luebke of Fredonia, Amy Petrongelli of Athens, and Penelope Shumate of Clarksville. In the university and community women’s division, finalists include Jacqueline Germer of Blue Bell, Gwen Glass of Seattle, Maya Hussein of Brooklyn, Xinyi Liu of Branford, Cayce Murphy of Charleston, Jacqueline Pimienta of Port St. Lucie, Mara Riley of Boston, and Caitlin M. Towell of Glen Carbon.

The men’s art song and oratorio division finalists for 2025 are William Bolin of Lake Forest, Wesley Dunnagan of Northfield, Austin Sinclair Harris of Missouri City, Luke J. Leone of Pittsburgh, Yuran Liu of Minneapolis, Roberto Mancusi of Martin, Ian Pomerantz of McLean, and Lei Zhou of Lawrence.

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