Five Singers Named Winners of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition

 

 

New York, NY (March 16, 2025)—The Met announces the winners of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition: sopranos Alissa Goretsky and Emma Marhefka, mezzo-sopranos Sadie Cheslak and Michelle Mariposa, and baritone Luke Sutliff. Following a season-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of varied judges named these five 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 2025 winners, their ages, the regions that they represent in the competition, and their hometowns are:

• Sadie Cheslak, 30, mezzo-soprano (Central Region; Duluth, Minnesota); The American-Scandinavian Foundation Birgit Nilsson Award

• Alissa Goretsky, 25, soprano (Midwest Region; Los Angeles, California); Fernand Lamesch Award

• Emma Marhefka, 25, soprano (Rocky Mountain Region; Allentown, Pennsylvania); Patricia Misslin Award

• Michelle Mariposa, 30, mezzo-soprano (Middle Atlantic Region; Quezon City, Philippines); Faith P. Geier Award

• Luke Sutliff, 28, baritone (Gulf Coast Region; Denver, Colorado); Dominique Laffont Award

 

 

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

• Angel Raii Gomez, 26, tenor (Middle Atlantic Region; McAllen, Texas); Pamela and William Craven Award

• Samuel Kidd, 29, baritone (Western Region; Ann Arbor, Michigan); Margaret M. Dyson Award

• Abigail Raiford, 30, soprano (Eastern Region; Tulsa, Oklahoma); Ellie Caulkins Award

• Lauren Randolph, 24, mezzo-soprano (Eastern Region; Chicago, Illinois); Judith Raskin Award

Earlier today, the nine finalists performed in the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Grand Finals Concert, hosted by 2007 competition winner mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, with soprano Janai Brugger, a 2012 winner, joining as guest artist. The panel of judges for the Grand Finals Concert included:

• Michael Heaston; Deputy General Manager, The Metropolitan Opera

• Gregory Henkel; Managing Director, Artistic, San Francisco Opera

• Myra Huang; Head of Music, Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, The Metropolitan Opera

• Maestro Karen Kamensek; Conductor

• Brian Speck; Artistic Administrator, The Metropolitan Opera

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

 

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

 

This season, the competition had nearly 1,500 applicants, with more than 900 singers qualifying to participate in 37 districts and 12 regions. Singers advanced through the districts to their corresponding region competition, from which 20 region winners advanced and were named national semifinalists.

 

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 Laffont Competition announced during the concert that it will be expanding to South America, with a new region in Santiago, Chile, beginning in the 2025–26 season. This expansion is thanks to a partnership with the Ibañez-Atkinson Foundation. Details regarding districts, dates, and guidelines will be released later this year on the Met’s website (metopera.org/competition) and the Laffont Competition’s social media channels.

 

The Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, formerly known since its founding in 1954 as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, is now in its 71st 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 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Finalists

 

Sadie Cheslak recently won third prize, the Luana DeVol Award for the Dramatic Voice, at the 2024 SAS Performing Arts Vocal Competition, and fourth overall and Most Promising Voice of the Competition at the 2024 NATS Artist Awards. In January, she covered the role of Madame de la Haltière in Cendrillon as a Smith Young Artist at Cedar Rapids Opera, and this past summer, she was a studio artist at Wolf Trap Opera, where she was featured in excerpts of Orphée et Eurydice and covered the alto solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mrs. Pascal in a workshop of Kamala Sankaram’s The House of Yes. She has also workshopped the roles of Lumee in Ellen Reid’s Prism (winner of the 2019 Pulitzer for Music) and Jane Doe in Ilya Demutsky’s Black Square and appeared in the title role of Sky Macklay’s The Surrogate. Upcoming engagements include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Rockford Symphony Orchestra and Gwyneth Walker’s Great Lakes Cantata with the North Shore Choral Society. This summer, she will join the Merola Opera Program. Central Region.

 

Angel Raii Gomez is currently a fourth-year resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA), where this season he sings Fritz Kobus in Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz and the title role of Faust. He won first prize in the 2023 Meistersinger Competition at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, earned first prize in the 2023 Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, and was a finalist in the 2024 Loren L. Zachary Competition. This past summer, he sang the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto and Pluton in Offenbach’s Orpheé aux Enfers at Opera North in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Orff’s Carmina Burana with New Jersey’s Ocean City Pops. In previous years at AVA, he appeared as Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Percy in Anna Bolena, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Gastone in La Traviata, and Monsieur Triquet in Eugene Onegin. Elsewhere, he has also sung Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Don José in Carmen, and Don Anchise in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. Middle Atlantic Region.

 

Alissa Goretsky recently won third place in the 2024 Houston Grand Opera Concert of Arias and was the winner of the 2023 San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concerto Competition, the first and grand prize winner of the 2022 Palm Spring Opera Guild Competition, a finalist in the 2022 Orpheus Competition, and a finalist in the 2021 Burbank Philharmonic Young Artist Competition. She made her operatic debut as Gismonda in Handel’s Ottone with San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Baroque Ensemble, and her recent roles have also included the Foreign Woman in Menotti’s The Consul, Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Emilia in Handel’s Flavio, as well as covering Sister Alice and Sister Catherine in Dialogues des Carmélites at San Francisco Opera. She is currently an Ernest and Sarah Butler Young Artist at Houston Grand Opera, where she recently made her house debut as Clorinda in La Cenerentola and covered Mimì in La Bohème. This coming summer, she will be an apprentice singer at the Santa Fe Opera, covering Helmwige in Die Walküre and Mimì. Midwest Region.

 

This season, Samuel Kidd returns to the Adler Fellowship Program at San Francisco Opera, where he sings Schaunard in La Bohème, in addition to performances as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte at Opera Naples. In fall 2024, he made his San Francisco Opera debut, appearing as Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera and Moralès in Carmen. A student of Gerald Martin Moore, he has also sung Tarquinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with the Merola Opera Program, Sgt. Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore and Tarquinius at Yale Opera, and the title role of Eugene Onegin at the Music Academy of the West. Western Region.

 

This season, Emma Marhefka joined Arizona Opera as a Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist, singing Musetta in La Bohème, the Priestess in Aida, and Sandrina in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera, and later this year, she will sing Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel at Opera Montana and Musetta at the Santa Fe Opera, where she returns as an apprentice singer. She has sung Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at Opera Tampa, Younger Alyce in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied at Knoxville Opera and Opera Roanoke, and Frasquita in Carmen at Des Moines Metro Opera; covered Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore at the Santa Fe Opera; and been a young artist at Des Moines Metro Opera and Wolf Trap Opera. At the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, she appeared as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Mary Johnson in Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers, the Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen, and Sandrina, and she sang Valeria in the world premiere of Cipullo’s Mayo at SUNY Potsdam in 2018. She is a two-time winner of the Corbett Opera Scholarship Competition and a 2023 finalist in Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition. Rocky Mountain Region.

 

Filipino Chinese mezzo-soprano Michelle Mariposa is a Cafritz Young Artist at Washington National Opera (WNO). She made her Kennedy Center debut as Waltraute in an excerpt of Die Walküre in WNO’s Gods and Mortals: A Celebration of Wagner and returns this May as the Teacher in Mason Bates’s The R(E)volution of Steve Jobs and as Anita in an excerpt of West Side Story in WNO’s American Rhapsody concert. This summer, she will be a Gaddes Festival Artist at Opera Theater of Saint Louis (OTSL), singing Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and covering Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Zoe in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House. Last summer, she made her OTSL debut as Maria Maddalena in Philip Glass’s Galileo Galilei and Nirena in Giulio Cesare. As a Gerdine Young Artist at OTSL, she covered the title role of Giulio Cesare and was awarded the Richard Gaddes Career Award. She has also participated in young-artist programs with Chicago Opera Theater, the Santa Fe Opera, and Teatro Nuovo, and this summer, she will join the 2025 International Meistersinger Akademie. Middle Atlantic Region.

 

Most recently, Abigail Raiford won first place and audience favorite in Opera Tampa’s D’Angelo Young Artist Vocal Competition, received the Opera Index Award from the Opera Index Vocal Competition, and debuted with the Glacier Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah. In 2024, she received first place in the Camille Coloratura Awards and the Charles Maggio Award, was the first runner-up in Shreveport Opera’s Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition, covered Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Teatro Nuovo, and made her Lincoln Center debut in Fauré’s Requiem with Manhattan Concert Productions at David Geffen Hall. Previous highlights include singing Elvira in L’Italiana in Algeri at Tulsa Opera and Narcissa in a new English-language translation of Haydn’s Jupiter’s Journey to the Earth with the little OPERA theatre of ny; concert performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Emory University Symphony Orchestra and Messiah with Handel Choir of Baltimore; performing a program of five new one-act operas, Five Ways to Die, with Experiments in Opera; and receiving an encouragement award from the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. Eastern Region.

 

Lauren Randolph recently debuted with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Chicago Symphony Chorus in the Bach’s Unser Mund sei voll Lachens and Darzu ist Erschienen. Other notable concert performances include Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil and Bach’s Oster-Oratorium at University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and Duruflé’s Requiem at Northwestern University. She has also appeared as Cornelia in Giulio Cesare as a guest with Ball State University, Serse in Handel’s Amastre at Chicago Summer Opera, and Disinganno in Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and Calypso in the North American premiere of Porpora’s Polifemo at Opera Neo. Currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Juilliard School, where she is a Kovner Fellow, she will appear later this season as Madame de Croissy in Dialogues des Carmélites at Juilliard Opera and Grimgerde in Die Walküre at the Santa Fe Opera, where she also covers Maddalena in Rigoletto. Eastern Region.

 

Luke Sutliff was a second-prize winner in the 2023 Operalia competition and recipient of study and career grants from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. This season, he returns to the Atlanta Opera as Marcello in La Bohème and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and sings Wolfram in Tannhäuser at Houston Grand Opera. This summer, he will make his Central City Opera debut as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and will debut with the Nashville Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. In 2023, he premiered the title role of Nico Muhly’s version of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Santa Fe Opera; sang Silvio in Pagliacci at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Figaro at Opera North Carolina and the Seattle Opera, and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Atlanta Opera; and appeared in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the NHK Symphony Orchestra. He returned to the Santa Fe Opera the following year to sing Sgt. Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore. Future engagements include debuts with Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Canadian Opera Company, the Glyndebourne Festival, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and a return to the Atlanta Opera. Gulf Coast Region.

 

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