Carnegie Mellon's School of Music won over half of the awards presented at this year's National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Tri-state Chapter Fall Adjudication. At the October 30 competition, in which singers from nine other universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia also competed,Carnegie Mellon won 21 out of 39 possible awards, including eight awards for first place, seven for second place, five for third place and one for honorable mention.

The competition was held at the Civic Light Opera Academy in Downtown Pittsburgh. During the semifinal, each singer was required to perform two songs, plus a third, if more evaluation was needed. Three singers in each category proceeded to the final round in which they chose one of three songs to sing in front of a panel of judges.

Emily Becker received first place in the Junior Women category. Becker sang "Hello, Oh Margaret, it's You" from The Telephone, by G.C. Menotti.

"The hardest part about the competition is you usually end up competing against your classmates, which isn't so bad when you're a freshman because you don't have those friend bonds just yet," said Becker. "But when you're an upperclassman, you want to do well, but you want your friend to win as well."

Morgan Harmison received first place among Freshman Women and first place in Lower Division Women. Harmison sang the musical theater piece "Vanilla Ice Cream" from She Loves Me and a classical piece called "La Pastorella Delle Alpi" by Gioacchino Rossini.

"I've competed in other competitions before that were set up differently. It was a different atmosphere," said Harmison. "[It was] more intense having to compete against classmates, but it was still a great experience."

The award winners were Senior Kerriann Kada; Juniors Emily Becker, Christopher Moyer, Tyler Rubensaal, Morgan Springer, and Samantha Grenell-Zaidman; Sophomores Emily Righter, Christine Lyons, Warren Carr, and Jaclyn Bermudez; and Freshmen Abigail Paschke, James Mayagoitia, Matthew Hrinko, Morgan Harmison, Rebecca Hadley, and Caitlyn Glennon.

Carnegie Mellon faculty members with award-winning students included Douglas Ahlstedt, Claudia Benack, Andrea Hanson, Mimi Lerner, Susanne Marsee, and Mildred Miller Posvar.

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