CU Boulder Music alumna Megan Marino (MM 2008, vocal performance) won third prize in the 2012 Lotte Lenya Competition on April 21, 2012, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Three-time Tony Award nominee Rebecca Luker, Broadway and Encores! music director Rob Berman, and Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization President and American Theater Wing Chairman of the Board Theodore S. Chapin served as judges.
Held annually by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, the Lotte Lenya Competition is an international theater singing contest that recognizes talented young singer-actors, ages 19-30, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire, and emphasizes the acting of songs within a dramatic context.
Noted for her “amber voice” and powerful stage presence, Megan Marino is becoming a sought after performer in opera and musical theater. She began her 2011-2012 season with a series of role and house debuts at Opera Colorado as the 3rd Wood Nymph in Rusalka and Tisbe in La Cenrentola, Anita in West Side Story and Hermia (cover) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Aspen Music Festival and most recently sang the title role in La Cenerentola with the Baltimore Concert Opera. Her 2012-2013 season brings house debuts at the Virginia Opera as Pitti-Sing in The Mikado, The Caramoor International Music Festival as Ciro (cover) in Ciro in Babilonia, Opera Fort Collins as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Opera Coeur d’Alene as Mercédès in Carmen. Other recent highlights include: Orlofksy in Die Fledermaus, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, 2nd Bridesmaid & Cherubino (cover) in Le Nozze di Figaro, Phoebe in Yeomen of the Guard, Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia and creation of the role of the Greek Trio Mezzo in David Chesky’s award winning operatic satire The Pig, the Farmer and the Artist at the NYC Fringe Festival.
She is a 2 time Finalist in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition, a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Allied Arts Career Grant Winner and was a multi-year prizewinner at the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition. She has participated in young artist training programs with Sarasota Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Aspen Opera Theater, and has toured with Opera Iowa, Central City Opera and Virginia Opera.