Six Singers Named Winners of the 2026 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition

 

The 2026 Laffont Competition Grand Finals Winners are baritone @gabrielnatalbaez, soprano @h.anje, soprano @songhee_lzy, soprano @shannoncrowleysoprano, baritone @bobby_wente2, and soprano @annathompson9. Photo by Natalie Powers / Met Opera. https://www.instagram.com/metoperacompetition 

 

New York, NY (March 22, 2026)—The Met announces the winners of the 2026 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition: sopranos Shannon Crowley, Elizabeth Hanje, Song Hee Lee, and Anna Thompson; and baritones Gabriel Natal-Báez and Robert Wente. Following a season-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of judges named these six singers as the winners. Each winner receives a $20,000 cash prize and the prestige, exposure, and networking opportunities that come with winning a renowned competition that has launched the careers of many of opera’s most well-known stars.

 

The 2026 winners, their ages, the regions that they represent in the competition, and their hometowns are:

Shannon Crowley, 25, soprano (Great Lakes Region; Virginia Beach, Virginia); Patricia Misslin Award

Elizabeth Hanje, 23, soprano (Northwest Region; Vestavia Hills, Alabama); Margaret M. Dyson Award

Song Hee Lee, 28, soprano (Eastern Region; Seoul, South Korea); Pamela and William Craven Award

Gabriel Natal-Báez, 27, baritone (Gulf Coast Region; Toa Alta, Puerto Rico);

 

Dominique Laffont Award

Anna Thompson, 26, soprano (Middle Atlantic Region; Rochester, Michigan); The American-Scandinavian Foundation Birgit Nilsson Award

Robert Wente, 26, baritone (Central Region; Munster, Indiana); Fernand Lamesch Award

 

The remaining four non-winning finalists, who each receive a $10,000 cash prize, are: 

Sophia Baete, 23, mezzo-soprano (Eastern Region; Louisville, Kentucky); Margaret M. Dyson Award

Gabrielle Turgeon, 25, soprano (Rocky Mountain Region; Boynton Beach, Florida); Anne de Richemont Smithers Award

Dejah Watts, 22, soprano (Central Region; Indianapolis, Indiana); Judith Raskin Award

Shiyu Zhuo, 26, soprano (Eastern Region; Zhejiang, China); Ellie Caulkins Award 

 

Earlier today, the ten finalists performed in the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Grand Finals Concert, hosted by 2005 winner soprano Lisette Oropesa, with soprano Tamara Wilson, a Laffont alumna, joining as guest artist.

 

The panel of judges for the Grand Finals Concert included:

Rupert Burleigh; Director of Music Administration, The Metropolitan Opera

Christopher Hahn; General Director, Pittsburgh Opera

Michael Heaston; Deputy General Manager, The Metropolitan Opera

Brian Speck; Artistic Administrator, The Metropolitan Opera

Melissa Wegner; Executive Director, Laffont Competition and Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, The Metropolitan Opera

Francesca Zambello; Artistic Director, Washington National Opera 

 

The singers each performed two arias on the Met stage, accompanied by the Met Orchestra and conducted by Maestro Carlo Rizzi.

 

This season saw the most participants in the competition’s history, with more than 1,700 applicants and more than 900 singers competing live across 13 regions and 39 districts. This season, the competition also partnered with the Ibáñez Atkinson Foundation to start a South America Region with districts in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. The Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition is operated at the district and region level by hundreds of dedicated volunteers and donors from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. More than $300,000 in prize money has already been awarded in the district and regional rounds. Throughout the season, more than $500,000 in awards money will be granted to singers. 

 

The Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, formerly known since its founding in 1954 as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, is now in its 72nd season. The Met’s vocal competition is a career-making opportunity for aspiring opera singers, given the reach of the auditions, the number of applicants, and the program’s long tradition. The Competition has been crucial in introducing many of today’s best-known opera stars, including Renée Fleming, Denyce Graves, Eric Owens, Stephanie Blythe, Hei-Kyung Hong, Sondra Radvanovsky, Lawrence Brownlee, Michael Fabiano, Latonia Moore, Lisette Oropesa, Jamie Barton, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Ryan Speedo Green, and Nadine Sierra.  

 

The Competition gained international renown with the release of the 2008 feature-length documentary The Audition, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, which chronicled the 2007 National Council Auditions season and Grand Finals Concert. 

 

Biographies of the 2026 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Finalists 

 

Sophia Baete is currently a second-year master’s student at the Juilliard School, where she is a Jerome L. Greene Fellow and completed her undergraduate studies under the tutelage of Darrell Babidge. Recently, she was named a semifinalist in the 2026 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition. She received the Grand Prize and Lissner Charitable Fund Award from the 2025 Opera Index Competition and won the 2025 Renata Scotto Prize at the Premiere Opera Foundation International Voice Competition. This summer, she will be an apprentice artist at the Santa Fe Opera, making her debut as Cio-Cio-San’s Aunt in Madama Butterfly. In the spring, she makes her role debut as Meg Page in Falstaff with Juilliard Opera. On the concert stage, she performs Berio’s Folk Songs with the Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of Barbara Hannigan and collaborates with Carnegie Hall as part of their Citywide recital series. In 2025, she made her Carnegie Hall debut as a young artist in SongStudio and returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for a second consecutive season as a Gerdine Young Artist, making her debut as Sally in Die Fledermaus. Following her time in Saint Louis, she was a vocal fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute.

 

Shannon Crowley is currently a resident artist with Pittsburgh Opera. She has previously trained with Des Moines Metro Opera and Opera Saratoga and will join San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program this summer. She holds a master’s degree from Rice University and a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University. At Pittsburgh Opera, she has appeared as Bailey in the world premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s Time to Act, Mary Johnson in Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers, Zelmira in Haydn’s Armida, the Shepherd Boy in Tosca, and covered Musetta in La Bohème. Upcoming performances at Pittsburgh Opera include Nannetta in Falstaff. At Des Moines Metro Opera, she covered Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress. At Opera Saratoga, she performed in the world premiere of Clarice Assad’s The Selfish Giant and covered Norina in Don Pasquale. She has also sung Drusilla in L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Jenny Hildebrand in Weill’s Street Scene, Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, and additional roles at Rice University and Michigan State University. In concert, she has most recently appeared as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Memphis Symphony. She has received top prizes and performed as a finalist in the Mildred Miller, Premiere Opera Foundation, Annapolis, Ruth Burr, National Opera Association, and Grand Rapids Opera competitions.

 

Elizabeth Hanje is currently a second-year member of the Butler Studio at Houston Grand Opera. In the 2025–26 season, she sings the Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess, an Alms Sister in Suor Angelica, Madeline Audebert in Kevin Puts’s Silent Night, and Gertrude in Hänsel und Gretel at Houston Grand Opera. In April, she joins the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera in concert for White’s Give Birth to a Dream. This summer, she joins the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as a resident of the Academie de Voix. In the summer of 2025, she was an apprentice singer at the Santa Fe Opera, where she covered the role of Gerhilde in Die Walküre and received an Outstanding First Year Apprentice Award. In her first year as a Butler Studio artist, she made her debut as Ines in Il Trovatore. In 2024, she was a young artist at San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program, appearing as Marguerite in Faust. In 2023, she was an apprentice artist at Des Moines Metro Opera, and she is a 2022 alumna of Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy. She was the first-place winner of Houston Grand Opera’s 2024 Eleanor McCollum Competition.

 

Song Hee Lee is an artist diploma candidate at the Juilliard School, where she studies with Darrell Babidge. In the 2025–26 season, she makes major debuts in concerts with Les Arts Florissants led by William Christie and with Les Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski, touring throughout France and Spain. Additional engagements include her debut with the Cecilia Chorus of New York in Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall and with the American Classical Orchestra in Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate. She will also make her North Carolina Opera debut as the Fairy Godmother in Cendrillon. In future seasons, she appears with Il Pomo d’Oro on a North American tour with Joyce DiDonato. In the summer of 2025, she appeared in Matthew Aucoin’s Music for New Bodies at Lincoln Center and Tanglewood, directed by Peter Sellars. Recent performances include Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare with Ruckus, a concert of Handel and Rameau arias with Juilliard415 conducted by William Christie, the Princess in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges with the Juilliard Orchestra under Louis Langrée, and Sophie in scenes from Der Rosenkavalier with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra.

 

Gabriel Natal-Báez is currently an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera and was a 2025 participant in San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program. This season, he made his debut as the baritone soloist in a Christmas concert with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. His repertoire includes Beaumarchais in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, Raimbaud in Le Comte Ory, Marullo in Rigoletto, Mr. Gobineau in Menotti’s The Medium, Le Podestat in Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, and the Explorer in Theo Chandler’s So You May Breathe in Light. His upcoming performances include Marcello in La Bohème. On the concert stage, he has performed Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel and Five Mystical Songs, a recital with soprano Ana María Martínez, and zarzuelas with Puerto Rico Opera. He holds degrees from Rice University and the University of Puerto Rico.

 

Anna Thompson is currently a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts. She holds a master’s degree from Rice University and a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. Recent roles include Countess Madeleine in Capriccio, Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, the title role of Alcina, Marie Antoinette in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, the title role of Suor Angelica, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and covering the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia and Mary Johnson in Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers. In concert, she recently made her Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra (Niagara Symphony) and debuted with the Bard Music Festival (Mariken de Nimegue). She has most recently been recognized with the top prize at the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, a George and Nora London Foundation Award, a Sullivan Foundation Award, third place at the Dallas Opera National Vocal Competition, and Judges’ Special Prize at the Gerda Lissner Foundation Art Song Competition. This summer, she joins San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program. She is an alumna of the Santa Fe Opera’s apprentice program, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’s Gerdine Young Artist Program, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

 

Gabrielle Turgeon is currently in her second season as a Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist at LA Opera, where she will perform the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte under the baton of James Conlon. Elsewhere in the 2025–26 season, she makes her role debut as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Aspen Music Festival, where she will spend the summer as a 2026 Renee Fleming Artist. Additional operatic engagements include Micaëla in Carmen at Brott Music Festival and covering Despina in Così fan tutte at LA Opera and Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande at Des Moines Metro Opera. While pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, she sang Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites and the title role of Janaček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto. In 2025, she was the Grand First Prize Winner of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s Le Concours OSM. Other competition achievements include finalist and Encouragement Award at the Butler Opera International Competition and finalist and the Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award at Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition.

 

Dejah Watts is a vocal performance major at the University of Kentucky, where she studies with Dr. Angelique Clay Everett and performs with several ensembles. At the University of Kentucky, she has appeared in productions of Menotti’s The Medium, Floyd’s Susannah, and Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road and A Nation of Others. Recent performances include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in numerous competitions, including the Schmidt Vocal Arts High School and Undergraduate Competitions, the CS Music Voice Competition, University of Kentucky Opera Theatre’s Alltech Competition, and the Tri-State Competition.

 

Robert Wente made his professional debut in January 2025, performing several excerpts as Escamillo in Carmen and Diego in Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego in the Hart Institute for Women Conductors Showcase Concert with the Dallas Opera. In October 2025, he performed several excerpts from Schubert’s Winterreise at the inaugural Art of Song Festival at the Colburn School. He has starred in several roles with Indiana University Opera Theater, including Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Escamillo, among others. He received first prize at the 2024 AIMS in Graz Meistersinger Competition. He is currently pursuing a performer diploma in vocal performance at Indiana University, where he recently completed his master’s degree.

 

Shiyu Zhuo is currently pursuing a graduate diploma at the Juilliard School under the guidance of Amy Burton. In the 2026–27 season, she will appear as Nannetta in Falstaff at Juilliard Opera. This summer, she will join Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, performing Isabel and covering Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and covering Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. In the 2025–26 season, she appeared as the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Juilliard Orchestra. In the previous season, her performances at the Juilliard School included Norina in scenes from Don Pasquale, Despina in Così fan tutte, the Shepherdess in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, and the soprano soloist in Handel’s Cecilia, Volgi un Sguardo. She holds a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she appeared as Musetta in La Bohème, the title role of Cavalli’s La Calisto, and Suzel in scenes from Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz. Additional appearances include Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel at the Musikverein Wien with the Vienna Opera Academy and the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with the NEC Philharmonia. She is the second-prize winner of the Opera Index Competition and first-prize winner of the Korea-China International Music Competition.