From London to Paris, Vienna to Rome, in Munich and Milan, Barcelona and Berlin, Illinois Wesleyan alumni are making their mark on the international opera world. They have toured in Tokyo and performed in Australia's spectacular Sydney opera house as well as in the shadows of an ancient Roman amphitheater in Catania, Sicily.

In the United States, Wesleyan-trained singers are appearing at New York's fabled Metropolitan Opera and in leading roles with such regionally acclaimed opera companies as those in Seattle, San Francisco, Miami, Santa Fe, St. Louis, Houston, Louisville, San Diego, Baltimore and Boston, among others.

The voices that once practiced scales in Presser Hall have been engaged for the most prestigious music festivals here and abroad: Tanglewood, Aspen, Aix-en-Province, Ravinia, Glyndebourne, and the Blossom Festival.

They have appeared in concert and recital around the world, and the reviews have been as lyrical as the voices that inspired them. In New York's Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art; in Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Library of Congress, they have thrilled thousands with their artistry.

Illinois Wesleyan graduates have won first place in most of the coveted competitions: the Naumburg, the Richard Tucker Award (now the richest, with its $20,000 prize), the Oratorio Society of New York, the American Opera Auditions, the Illinois Opera Guild, the Minna Kauffman Rudd competition, among others.

And they have continued their education, earning masters and doctoral degrees at Northwestern, the Manhattan School of Music Juilliard, and Eastman.

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