Conservatory graduate wins Metropolitan Opera National Council district audition

Baritone Efraín Solís ’11 has won a major opera competition, capturing the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition for the Western Region, San Francisco district, held Sunday, Oct. 7, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Winners of the district auditions advance to the Western Region Finals on Sunday, Nov. 4, at The Colburn School in Los Angeles.

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions date to 1954, and over the past 60 years they have helped discover generations of opera talent.

Solís has performed a variety of roles, including the title role in Eugene Onegin with Russian Opera Workshop in Philadelphia, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Figaro in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with Operafestival di Roma in Italy. At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music he has performed the title role in Don Giovanni under the baton of Giuseppe Finzi.

Last spring he took first place in the East Bay Opera League Scholarship Competition and second place in the Berkeley Piano Club’s Dorothy Van Waynen Vocal Competition. This season Solís will sing the title role in Gianni Schicchi at the San Francisco Conservatory, as well as Il Conte Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. In spring 2013 he will join Opera Santa Barbara as a studio artist and covering Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale.

In 2011, under the instruction and guidance of Peter Atherton, DMA, associate professor and the Robert and Norma Lineberger Endowed Chair in Music, Solís received his bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Chapman University’s Conservatory of Music. Currently Solís is a candidate for the master’s of music degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of César Ulloa.