FARMINGTON — The Nordica Memorial Association has announced the winners of this year’s Nordica scholarship. It is awarded to a student of singing in Maine who aspires to a career in singing. This year’s contest resulted in a tie, with Kaleigh Hunter of Saco and Emma Jones of South Portland as winners.
In “normal times” Hunter and Jones would perform in Farmington’s annual Nordica Day Concert scheduled to take place on Monday, Aug. 17. It was on that date in 1911 when Farmington native and celebrated opera diva, Lillian Nordica, performed for the last time in her home town in what is now called Nordica Auditorium. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the concert will be postponed until August of 2021.
Hunter is a first-year vocal performance major at the University of Southern Maine where she studies voice with Melinda Haslett. She was in numerous musical theater productions in high school and was recently cast in the role of Pamina in “The Magic Flute.”
Jones is a junior at Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. However, she was taking a gap year and studying with Mary Johnston Letellier while at home in Maine. Some performance highlights for her have been Bernstein’s Mass, and the role of Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Samples of Hunter’s and Jone’s singing can been viewed on the Lillian Nordica website at http://www.lilliannordica.com/nordica-day-concert. The recordings were their audition submissions on which they were judged.
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