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Singer wins Rose Bowl on eve of 20th birthday
Aran Matsuda, an international student from Japan, says he was shocked to be named the most outstanding senior vocalist in the 91st annual Winnipeg Music Festival.
"I couldn’t believe it," said Matsuda, who won the coveted Rose Bowl trophy on Saturday and celebrated his 20th birthday on Sunday.
"My intention was to put on the best show. I didn’t really think of winning."
The young bass-baritone is a second-year music student at the University of Manitoba. In only his second year competing in the festival, he triumphed over 11 other singers with his performances of an aria from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and a piece by Mikhail Glinka.
He won three voice classes during the festival and took home the Doris (Mills) Lewis Memorial Trophy as well.
The runners-up for the Rose Bowl were Caitlin Wood and Rosanna Murphy.
Matsuda thanked his accompanist and credited U of M music instructors Mel Braun, Robert MacLaren, Lois Watson-Lyons and Katherine Twaddle for preparing him.
Matsuda came to Canada seven years ago to study at Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna. He is a member of The University Singers, the baroque ensemble Canzona and the First Presbyterian Church choir. His dream is to be an opera singer.
He was the bass soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra when it performed a score for the silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc during this year’s New Music Festival.
Past winners of the Rose Bowl include such distinguished singers as Victor Engbrecht, Tracy Dahl, Valdine Anderson and Donna Fletcher.
The festival wrapped up Sunday with the Gala Concert, at which Matsuda performed the Bach aria.
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