Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, Bachelor of Music ’08, accompanied by Tyler Wottrich, assistant professor of piano, NDSU Challey School of Music, took fourth place in the 2017 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. The only female vocalist in the finals, she was awarded the Richard Tauber Prize for best performance of Schubert Lieder. Held at Wigmore Hall in London Sept. 2-7, the competition featured 23 selected duos from 15 countries.
In March, Osowski was awarded the second prize award in the prestigious 2017 Das Lied International Song Competition, where she also was accompanied by Wottrich. Following the Wigmore Hall event, they were invited to perform Sept. 8 on the prestigious BBC radio program “In Tune.”
Osowski is an award-winning soloist and chamber musician who performs throughout the United States and Europe. Earlier in 2017, she won the Saengerbund Awards German Vocal Competition in Houston, and previously was a finalist in the 2015 Das Lied competition. She sings with the Rose Ensemble and Seraphic Fire internationally touring vocal ensembles, and she is the co-founder and associate artistic director of the annual Source Song Festival in Minneapolis. She is a native of Carrington, North Dakota.
Wottrich has developed a career spanning a broad spectrum of musical genres, including solo piano, chamber music, ballet, opera and gospel. An alumnus of Ensemble ACJW (a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, Weill Music Institute and New York City Department of Education), he performs frequently in such venues as Carnegie's Zankel and Weill Halls and the Juilliard School. He received the 2011 Emerson Quartet's Ackerman Prize for chamber music, and is the founder and artistic director of the annual NDSU Chamber Music Festival. He developed the graduate collaborative piano program at NDSU’s Challey School of Music and teaches applied piano, as well as music theory and analysis courses.
Since it was founded in 1997, the International Song Competition has grown in status and prestige, and attracts singers and pianists from around the world, aged 33 or under. The competition’s jury consists of internationally renowned artists and directors from the world’s elite concert halls and music festivals. It also promotes the exchange of ideas between artists from all over the world, and is an important platform for public performance and the expansion of repertoire.
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