So sitting in the hall waiting for the judges to come back I made my own list of the likely finalists and reflected on a few things.  I had Summerfield and Brancy clearly top, despite their contrasting styles.  Osowsky and van Mellaerts seemed the most likely to join them in the final though I would not have ruled out one of the others sneaking the fourth place.  And it turned out that Brancy, Osowsky, Summerfield and van Mellaerts were, indeed, the judges’ choice.

A couple of thoughts:  Watching Summerfield/Wybrew and Brancy/Dugan was interesting.  These are clearly well developed and established partnerships and the pianists really helped the singers.  I think that must be much harder when the singer is working with a staff pianist who is working both competitions with multiple singers.

Art song as the classical Liederabend or as a more popular (populist?) form of entertainment?  Both approaches worked here.  Maybe it’s a North America versus Europe thing?  A German John Brancy is hard to imagine.  I don’t know.  I enjoy both.

Anyhow, tomorrow at 3pm at Bourgie Hall it’s the final showdown.

Photo credit: Tan Lan Truong