Berri Harris, vocalist
2024 NMTC Winner
Melony Dodson, piano
NATS Competition Winners Concert
Monday, July 1, 2024 | 2 p.m.
Knoxville Convention Center
Ballroom ABC
Emily Siar, soprano
2024 NATSAA Winner
Jean Anderson Collier, piano
“Lost in the Brass”
PROGRAM
No Longer the Same
Tommy Newman
Laura in Band Geeks & Gaby Alter
“A Change in Me” Alan Menken
Belle in Beauty and the Beast & Tim Rice
“A Little Bit in Love”
Eileen in Wonderful Town
Waldesgespräch
from Liederkreis
Die Loreley
Lorelei
from Pardon My English
Leonard Bernstein
Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Witches in the Woods
Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Joseph von Eichendorff, text
Franz Liszt (1811–1886)
Heinrich Heine, text
George Gershwin (1898–1937)
Ira Gershwin, text
Mending Hearts
“Never Fall in Love with an Elf”
Matthew Sklar
Jovie in Elf & Chad Beguelin
“To My Angels” Lourds Lane
Katie in SuperYou
II. Anne Boleyn
from Try Me, Good King
Hyacinth
Woman Walking
“Take Me to the World”
Ella in Evening Primrose
“Holding Out for a Hero”
Women’s Voices
Libby Larsen (b. 1950)
Anne Boleyn, text
Margaret Bonds (1913–1972)
Edna St. Vincent Millay, text
Nell Shaw Cohen (b. 1988)
Megan Cohen, text
Wanting More
Stephen Sondheim
Jim Steinman
Ariel in Footloose & Dean Pitchford
At the Cabaret
Nanna’s Lied
Toothbrush Time
Kurt Weill (1900–1950)
Bertolt Brecht, text
William Bolcom (b. 1938) from Cabaret Songs
Louis “Louiguy” Guglielmi (1916–1991)
Arnold Weinstein, text La Vie en rose
arr. Jon Rarick (b. 1991)
Berri Harris recently earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre performance from the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts (Fight On!). Her USC roles included Margaret White in Carrie, singing “Bless the Lord” in Godspell, and singing “Being Alive” and “Take Me to the World” in Sondheim on Sondheim. Originally from Tyler, Texas, Harris plans to move to New York this fall to begin her theatrical journey as a “New Yawker.” After advancing through multiple levels of competition, Harris was selected as the 2024 winner of NATS NMTC by an illustrious panel of finals adjudicators including multi-Tony®Awardwinning composer, Adam Guettel; Andy Einhorn, musical director of seven Broadway shows and current musical director/pianist for Audra McDonald’s solo performances; talent agent Matt Redmond, owner of DGRW talent agency; and director/producer JoAnn M. Hunter, who has amassed 20 Broadway credits as a choreographer or performer.
Melony Dodson maintains an active career as a collaborative pianist as well as classical radio host/producer for WUOT, 91.9 FM (Knoxville’s public radio station and NPR-affiliate). For the past 16 years, she has worked as a freelance music director in the Knoxville area, directing productions at Maryville College, the Clarence Brown Theatre (at the University of Tennessee), and Theatre Knoxville Downtown, among others. Most recently, she performed at the Tennessee Theatre playing Keys 2 in the national touring production of Wicked, as well as Keys 2 in the Clarence Brown Theatre’s production of Kinky Boots Additionally, Dodson is passionate about collaborating with choirs and is the pianist for the University of Tennessee Men’s Chorale and the Oak Ridge Chorus. She has worked as
a coach/accompanist with UT Opera Theatre, as well as Knoxville Opera and has performed occasionally as a pianist with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Dodson holds a master’s degree in collaborative piano from the University of Tennessee (with a focus on musical theatre) and a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Appalachian State University. Her teachers include Kevin Class, Rodney Reynerson, Christina Dahl and Benton Hess.
Emily Siar has been hailed by Opera News as “charming and memorable.” The Boston-based soprano is making a name for herself as a sensitive and vibrant performer of opera, early music, art song, chamber music, contemporary music and cabaret. In recent seasons, Siar has been featured as an artist with Boston Baroque, the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Emmanuel Music, Boston Opera Collaborative and Mass Opera. This season she makes make her debut with the Grammy® Award-winning Boston Early Music Festival. Alongside her career as a singer, Siar is a skilled and passionate voice pedagogue, serving on the voice and vocal pedagogy faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She is a graduate of New England Conservatory (Doctor of Musical Arts, vocal performance and pedagogy), Eastman School of Music (Master of Music) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Kenan Music Scholar earning her Bachelor of Music degree. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband, Nick, and vocal yorkiepoo, Teddy. After advancing through multiple levels of competition, Siar was chosen as the 2024 NATSAA winner by a distinguished panel of finals adjudicators including internationally renowned pianist, conductor, and coach, Warren Jones; soprano, Susanna Phillips, who has performed in more than 10 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera; and talent representative, founder, and president of Stratagem Artists based in New York City, Justin Werner.
Jean Anderson Collier is a nationally known vocal coach and pianist. She is the principal opera coach at Boston Conservatory, where she also coaches art song and teaches courses in opera. At New England Conservatory of Music, she teaches foreign-language diction. She is active as musical advisor, pianist, and coach for the Boston Opera Collaborative, and she is the organist and choir director at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Scituate, Massachusetts. She has been a coach at Berklee College of Music’s Summer Opera Intensive in Valencia, Spain; a coach and pianist at University of Alaska’s Summer Arts Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska; and a coach at Northern Arizona University’s summer opera program Flagstaff in Fidenza, in Fidenza, Italy. She has collaborated with many New England musical organizations including Boston Lyric Opera, Tanglewood Music Festival, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Opera Providence, Harvard University’s Summer Chorus, Harvard-Radcliffe chorus, Orpheus Singers, Back Bay Chorale, MetroWest Opera, Longwood Opera, Brandeis University choruses, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also maintains an active schedule as a recitalist performing with singers in the United States and Europe. Recent engagements have included concerts in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Rome, Santo Stephano, Italy, and Valencia, Spain. Her performance of Mirror with singers from the Boston Opera Collaborative was named one of the 10 best Boston classical music performances of the year in Boston’s Classical Music Review. Anderson Collier holds a doctorate from New England Conservatory. Her principal teachers include Margo Garrett, Irma Vallecillo, Kayo Iwama, Kenneth Griffiths and Hartmut Höll.
NATS Artist Awards (NATSAA)
Established in 1955, NATS Artist Awards (NATSAA) was established to discover classical singers, whose artistry evidences their readiness for a professional career and to encourage them toward that goal with a cash prize and opportunities for performance engagements. The association holds biennial semifinals and finals in New York City in conjunction with the NATS Winter Workshop. Semifinalists receive feedback from professionals in classical vocal arts, with more than $50,000 in prizes. The first “NATS Singer of the Year Competition” in 1955 awarded bass Richard Rivers $500 and auditions with major opera companies. By 1968, the competition expanded, becoming the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards (NATSAA), with additional prizes introduced in 1986, including the Mary Wolfman Award in 1984. Since 1989, every national semifinalist has received a cash award. The American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, continues to offer scholarships as a part of NATSAA’s prize packages. Past sponsorships invited winners to perform in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and other NYC venues, and the first-place winner performs at the NATS national conference. The 2026 NATSAA competition begins with regional auditions in fall 2025. For updates, visit nats.org or email questions to VPauditions@nats.org.
NATS National Musical Theatre Competition
Established in 2011, NATS NMTC was the first national competition for emerging professional musical theatre artists. NMTC recognizes talented singing actors, offering cash prizes and industry exposure. Past competitors have found success on Broadway and beyond. In 2018, NATS moved the competition’s semifinals and finals to live auditions in NYC, culminating biennially in January. Prizes include the Bill Hayes fourth-place prize (est. 2016 by his friends and family), Louise Lerch third-place prize (est. 2014 by Jolie Stratton), Linda J. Snyder second-place prize (est. 2024 by the former NATS president herself), and Florence Birdwell first-place prize (est. 2024 by Lisa Love and former Birdwell students). Hal Leonard also has awarded gift certificates for prizes. Additional new prizes are planned for 2026. As has been tradition, NATS hosts a performance by the recent first-place winner at the national conference. For updates on the 2025/26 competition, visit nats.org or watch for announcements in the NATS Intermezzo newsletter. For questions, contact VPauditions@nats.org.
To support future young singing artists in NATSAA or NMTC, visit nats.org/give
