Met Auditions finalist Henry joins Florentine Opera team
Kathryn Henry said it still blows her mind to remember what happened in 2015.
That year, she went from studying for classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to singing on the stage of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Out of more than 1,500 singers who began in local competitions for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions around the country, Henry was one of nine national finalists.
Only 22 at the time of the finals, she was the youngest singer in each of her rounds of the competition.
That meteoric year opened many opportunities for the soprano from Sheboygan: singing Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 with the Milwaukee Symphony, scholarships to study and perform at the Chautauqua Institution, a master’s degree in music from Juilliard — and her latest opportunity, a return to Milwaukee as one of the Florentine Opera’s four Baumgartner Studio Artists this season.
Henry has two parts to play in Florentine Opera’s season-opening production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” Oct. 11 and 13: the supporting role of Barbarina, a cousin of Figaro; and covering, or understudying, the leading role of Countess Almaviva, performed by Susannah Biller.
“It’s been inspirational for me watching (Biller) … think through things in rehearsal,” Henry said. “You get to look at people who are ahead of you in your career.”
Now in its 12th season, the Florentine’s Studio Artists program is a training program for promising young singers beginning their professional careers. Henry, mezzo-soprano Meghan Folkerts, tenor Luke Selker and baritone Samuel James Dewese will sing and cover roles in Florentine productions, sing quartet concerts, and perform the Florentine’s annual touring school show for thousands of children in southeastern Wisconsin.
This year’s school show is “Cinderella,” with music drawn from several operas on the theme, and new text by UWM graduate Danielle Gedemer. “So brilliant, so funny,” said Henry, who gets to be Cinderella.
To see the impact of the studio artists program, just look at the cast list for Florentine’s “Figaro.” Former studio artist Ariana Douglas is singing the crucial role of Susanna.
Henry took a break after finishing her master’s degree at Juilliard, working as a nanny for a spell. But she said her transition into the Florentine has been an easy one. She had already been working with Janna Ernst, the Florentine’s pianist and singer coach.
“I tell a lot of people this, that Florentine was the first opera that I ever saw,” Henry said. (It was Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah.”) Experiencing that opera helped Henry decide to give up bassoon and concentrate fully on singing, she said.
The local round of this year’s Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions will take place Oct. 19 at the Wilson Center in Brookfield. Henry’s advice to singers is simple.
“Have fun,” she said. “Don’t think of it as a competition, because they’re going to read that all in your face.”
“I was a baby singer and had no idea what was coming, just doing it for fun,” she said, reflecting on her experience. “I ended up going all the way and having that big thing happen in my life.”