Jamie Barton is a rising star in the opera world. She’s just 33, but her voice has filled concert halls all over the world. She won both the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and the prestigious Robert Tucker Award – a $50,000 prize known as the “Heisman trophy of music.” Barton joins host Celeste Headlee to talk about her passion for singing and how she got her start in rural Rome, Georgia.
Read MoreMezzo Jamie Barton has been named as the winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award. One of opera’s most prestigious accolades, the award carries a cash prize of $50,000 and is bestowed annually on an American singer deemed to be on the threshold of a major international career by a panel of industry professionals. Previously, Barton was named as the winner of both the Main and Song prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, and she was also a winner at the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2012, the mezzo was a recipient of a Career Grant from the Tucker Foundation, and in 2014, she was named as the recipient of a Marian Anderson Award from the Kennedy Center.
Read MoreThe prize dubbed the Heisman Trophy for singers is going to a Georgia native with an earth-shattering voice — and an earthy style. Announced Sunday, the winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award is mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. The opera star recently appeared barefoot in jeans, giggling and cradling a glass of Oregon wine — offstage, chatting with a friend on YouTube. Onstage in costume, she's being compared to the past century's finest vocalists.
Read MoreThe rich-voiced mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has been awarded the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, the foundation that administers the award announced on Sunday night. The $50,000 prize, which commemorates Tucker, the great Brooklyn-born tenor, was the latest in a series of accolades for Ms. Barton, a rising star. She previously won both the main prize and the song prize at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, and was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2007 — a lively competition that was featured in Susan Froemke’s film “The Audition.”
Read MoreMezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has added the 2015 Richard Tucker Award to her trophy case, a $50,000 prize granted annually to an American singer “on the threshold of a major international career.” Actually, Barton, 33, is already well on her way, having been named the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and granted the mantle of “fresh wonder of the opera world” by the ever-influential New Yorker. She is also a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Kennedy Center’s 2014 Marian Anderson Award.
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