Vero Voce student wins first place in national vocal competition
The National Association of Teachers of Singing held the final round of the 2017 National Student Auditions July 22 at the University of Colorado-Boulder College of Music. Winners were selected in 14 categories, along with second-place, third-place and honorable mention finishers, resulting in more than $35,000 in prizes being awarded.
Katelyn Jassoy, student of Dawn Harkins at Vero Voce Theater and School of Performing Arts in St. Charles, representing the NATS' Central Region encompassing Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, won first place in the Lower College Women Musical Theater Division.
Fourteen regions were represented in the competition with a maximum of 14 singers each advancing to the semifinal in Boulder. The final winning song was Katelyn's comedic delivery of "Don't Want To Be Here" from "Ordinary Days."
The 2015 Rosary High School graduate is a rising junior at Oklahoma City University double majoring in musical theater and vocal performance. She was recently seen at Theatre West Virginia performing Rusty in "Footloose" and Alifair McCoy in "Hatfields & McCoys." In the Chicago area, she has recently performed Veronica in "Heathers the Musical" at Vero Voce, Dunlap in the Metropolis' "Christmas carol," and the lead character in "Cinderella," a role for which she was an Illinois High School Musical Theatre Award finalist. Completing 10 years of consistent study and hard work culminating in many successful performances with Harkins, Katelyn will continue her studies under the guiding hand of Autumn West an Oklahoma City University, which boasts famous alumni, Tony Award-winning actresses Kristin Chenoweth and Kelli O'Hara.
Katelyn's win comes on the heels of another recent student success in the national Hal Leonard Vocal competition where Vero Voce students of Dawn Harkins, singers Natalie Wiley, second-place winner, and Madeline Hotham, third-place winner won honors in the children's musical theater category. Also of note are Riley Brutto and Brooke Lynch selected by audition to sing in the 2017 National Honors Performance Series Women's Choir at Carnegie Hall.
Founded in 1944, National Association of Teachers of Singing Inc. is the largest professional association of teachers of singing in the world with nearly 7,000 members in the United States, Canada and nearly 30 other countries.