The BYU recital hall lights dimmed as the stage came alive to open the 2026 Young Artists of Voice competition, Jan. 20.
The competition is a classical voice contest held over three days, featuring BYU’s top vocalists. The first round was held on Jan. 20, where 25 students selected in the fall semester performed one song each.
Vocal students such as Eden Durham spent countless hours practicing for the competition, memorizing five or six songs to perform across three rounds.
“Blood, sweat and tears,” Durham said. “I’ve done a lot of hard things in my life. Opera — I feel like it takes the cake.”
Opera is much more complicated than simply singing a song.
Ruth Ellis is an adjunct professor in the vocal division who has judged the Young Artists competition for nearly 25 years.
“I watch for captivating storytelling,” Ellis said.
For the Young Artists competition, vocalists are judged on expression, musicality and language diction in addition to vocal technique. Because many of the pieces are sung in different languages, students learn Italian, French and German, among other languages.
Olivia Heder has done classical voice training since high school.
“It’s as much of an acting thing as it is a singing thing,” Heder said. “I have to convince myself that I can pull that emotion out of the drop of a hat like a magician.”
For students in the classical voice program at BYU, the Young Artists competition provides the perfect environment to push themselves and learn more about themselves as singers.
Mindy Ammons, an adjunct professor of classical voice who has judged the competition for more than 10 years, acknowledged the immense pressure on students.
“It’s exhausting,” Ammons said. “This is a great experience for them to just get up and perform … and get used to what the whole audition and competition process is like.”
Despite the intensity that comes with the major, students like Durham and Heder are passionate about their program and love sharing opera with the world around them.
“I love to sing, I love to tell stories, I love to engage with the audience and I love art and beauty. Opera is basically maxed out on all of those things,” Durham said.
Heder explained the vast community effort that goes into producing the art that is opera, from the singer to the set designers and the entire orchestra.
“It’s one of the coolest things that a group of people can do, come together and make this music,” Heder said.
Round two of the Young Artists of Voice competition was held on Jan. 22, where 15 of the students from round one got the chance to perform two songs each. The top 10 vocalists then progressed to the final round, Jan. 24.
The winner of the competition was Samuel Lorenzo Gilbert. He received the Singer of the Year award, as well as a monetary prize.
To see more upcoming BYU opera events, visit its website.