2026 Finalists

JTVA is pleased to announce the seven finalists who will compete in the Thirteenth Annual Vocal Competition. We are thrilled with the remarkable talent of all these singers and look forward with great excitement to what the future brings them!

Korean-American soprano Tiffany Choe is a Cafritz Young Artist with Washington National Opera and a winner of the Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera National Voice Competition, the George London Award, the Sullivan Award, and Second Prize in the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition. Recent engagements include Anne Putnam in The Crucible and Marzelline in Fidelio with Washington National Opera. Previously, she was a Pullin Studio Artist with Arizona Opera, performing Pamina in The Magic Flute. A graduate of Indiana University Bloomington, Choe is also an accomplished recitalist and Steans Music Institute Fellow at the Ravinia Festival.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, bass-baritone Sam Dhobhany enters into his third-year in the HGO Butler Studio. This summer, Dhobhany was a part of the prestigious International Meistersinger Akademie under the direction of Edith Wiens. Dhobhany was recently awarded 2nd prize and the Audience Choice award at the 2026 Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing Competition. This year at HGO, Dhobhany will perform the roles of Wagner in Faust, 2nd Priest/2nd Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte, and The Police Inspector in Der Rosenkavalier. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Christopher Gray, bass-baritone, is a rising senior pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of North Texas, where he studies with American bass-baritone Stephen Morscheck. Christopher was recently named a winner in the Schmidt Vocal Arts Undergraduate Awards (Upper Division), took 3rd Place in the MIOpera International Vocal Competition, and was a finalist in the San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club Voice Competition. In the 2024–2025 season, Christopher’s performances have included Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Frosch (Die Fledermaus), and the Sodbuster (Proving Up) with UNT Opera; Masetto (Don Giovanni) with Music On Site Inc.; and Colline (La bohème) with the Sherman Symphony Orchestra. This summer, Christopher joins the Aspen Music Festival and School as a Studio Artist, where he will cover the role of Schaunard (La bohème) and perform as the Samana bass-baritone soloist in the world premiere of Siddhartha, She, a new oratorio by Christopher Theofanidis and Melissa Studdard.

Georgian tenor Giorgi Guliashvili began his vocal training at the Tbilisi State Conservatory, where he made his debut in 2019 as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Alfredo in La Traviata. He later studied at the Academy of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, under the celebrated soprano Mariella Devia. During this time, he performed roles including Cavaradossi in Tosca and appeared in concerts with the Orchestra of Teatro San Carlo across Europe. He subsequently trained at the Music Academy of the West and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. In 2025, he completed postgraduate studies at Yale University before joining the Royal Opera House’s prestigious Jette Parker Artists Programme for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons. Guliashvili is the recipient of numerous international awards, including First Prize at the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition. He was also the Boston Region winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition.

Praised as “a natural performer” with a “unique, magnetic instrument” (La Scena Musicale), Canadian mezzo-soprano Ariana Maubach is an artist on the rise. A 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition National Semifinalist, she attended the Merola Opera Program, singing Ragonde in Le comte Ory, and will return this summer in the title role of La tragédie de Carmen. She also appeared with Opera Delaware in the world premiere of Fearless. As the First Prize and Audience Choice winner of the 2024 Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Competition, Ariana joined the Ensemble Studio for the 2025–2026 season, singing Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and covering several roles. A graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts, she has performed with Des Moines Metro Opera, Spoleto Festival, and Music Academy of the West.

Rachel Schlesinger, soprano, recently completed her studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with César Ulloa. In fall 2026, she will continue her studies at the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Gerald Martin Moore, performing Tatiana in Eugene Onegin and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte.

Recent performances include the title role in Handel’s Alcina, Magda de Civry in Puccini’s La Rondine, and Dorinda in Handel’s Orlando. Rachel was a semifinalist in the 2026 Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, the 2026 Premiere Opera Foundation Competition, and the 2025 James Toland Vocal Arts Competition. Additional honors include First Place in the NATS Central Region Classical Voice Competition and Third Place in the Shirley Rabb Winston Voice Scholarship Competition.

Dominic Townsend is an emerging baritone from Youngstown New York and has recently completed his BM in Vocal Performance at the SUNY Fredonia School of Music. In the fall, he will begin his masters degree at The Juilliard School as a Kovner Fellow. Some of Dominic’s role credits include, Le Mari (Les Mamelles de Tirésias), Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), John Sorel and Secret Police (The Consul), Baron Duphol (La Traviata), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Frank (Die Fledermaus), and Dr John Watson in the premiere of 221B: A Sherlock Holmes Opera. Dominic won first place in the Opera Grand Rapids VanderLaan Competition, has received the prestigious Fredonia Performer’s Certificate and has attended esteemed summer programs such as AIMS in Graz, Austria, and the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory.