Franz Schubert 

Quartettsatz, D. 703 

Caroline Shaw  

Entr'acte 

Anton Webern  

Langsamer Satz 

Antonín Dvořák 

String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, “American”

Amanda Harberg 

Sonata for Piccolo and Piano 

Luciano Berio 

Sequenza I per flauto 

Valerie Coleman 

Mama Griot 

Claude Debussy 

Syrinx, pour flûte seule 

César Franck 

Sonata in A Major

Farkhad Khudyev, conductor

Co-presented with KMFA 89.5 as part of the Declaration Project celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States 

Lara Downes, piano 

Donnie Ray Albert, baritone

Aaron Copland 

Lincoln Portrait 

Valerie Coleman 

Life (TX premiere) 

Arturo O’Farrill 

Liberty (TX premiere) 

Christopher Tin 

The Pursuit of Happiness (TX premiere)

Jerry F. Junkin, conductor

Hila Plitmann, soprano

Stephen Montague 
Introit St John’s (U.S. premiere) 

Morton Lauridsen, tr. Reynolds 
O Magnum Mysterium 
 
Sam Lipman 
The World Will Open (world premiere) 

Donald Grantham 
All You Who Sleep Tonight 

Benjamin Horne 
Spiritual Symphony 

Leah Crocetto, soprano 

Donnie Ray Albert, baritone 

James Maverick, piano 

Sister Rosetta Tharpe 

Up Above My Head I Hear Music in the Air 

Give Me Jesus, trad. 

Selections by Ricky Ian Gordon 

Samuel Barber 

Nocturne, Op. 33 

Carlisle Floyd 

Ain’t it a Pretty Night? from Susannah 

Cole Porter 

So in Love from Kiss Me, Kate 

George Gershwin from Porgy and Bess 

I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’ 

Bess, You Is My Woman Now 

My Man's Gone Now 

Stephen Sondheim 

Selections from Sweeney Todd 

Henri Büsser 

Cantecor for Horn and Piano, Op. 77 

Patrick Hughes 

Sonata for Horn and Piano 

Edith Borroff 

Sonata for Horn and Piano 

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel 

Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water

As part of the Butler Opera Center, and led by its visionary director, Tamar Sanikidze, the competition promotes the center’s mission of crafting the next generation of opera professionals. The competition’s judging panel unites the most influential experts in opera, representing many of the world’s leading opera companies and training institutions. Made possible by the support of Dr. Ernest and Mrs. Sarah Butler, over $35,000 in prize money and encouragement awards will be presented at this year’s competition. 

Judges 

Colin Brush, Houston Grand Opera 

Dominic Domingo, San Diego Opera & Askonas Holt 

Paul Hopper, LA Opera 

David Lomelí, Santa Fe Opera 

Lee Anne Myslewski, Wolf Trap Opera & OPERA America 

Tamar Sanikidze, Butler Opera Center & Music Academy of the West 

Pianists 

James Maverick, Butler School of Music 

Nino Sanikidze, Shepherd School of Music 

Competitors will be announced by the end of summer 2026.

Franz Schubert 

Die schöne Müllerin, D.795

Miles Ahead: Celebrating 100 Years of Miles Davis

Diego Rivera & Mike Sailors, directors

Farkhad Khudyev, conductor

Bion Tsang, cello

Adam Schoenberg 

Go 

Gara Garayev 

Layla and Majnun 

Antonín Dvořák 

Cello Concerto, Op. 104

Anton Nel, piano 

Sandy Yamamoto, violin 

Wilhelm Magner, viola 

Bion Tsang, cello 

Jonathan Gunn, clarinet 

Colette Valentine, piano 

Thomas Burritt, percussion 

Arlo Shultis, percussion 

W.A. Mozart 

Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 493 

Francis Poulenc 

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano 

Claude Debussy 

Première rhapsodie 

Béla Bartók 

Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz.110 

Music by Vincenzo Bellini

Libretto by Felice Romani

Douglas Kinney Frost, conductor

Yingmeige Xiong, stage director

Sung in Italian with English with supertitles.

David Hurd, organ 

Featuring the Butler School’s newly acquired Op. 171 continuo organ 

J.S. Bach 

Toccata and Fugue in F Major, BWV 540 

Antonio Soler 

6 Concertos for Two Organs, No. 6 

John Stanley 

Voluntary in D Major 

Rob Peters 

Sonata Festiva for Two Organs, Op. 121 

César Franck 

Choral No. 3 in A Minor, FWV 40 

Jerry F. Junkin, conductor

The Mariachi Paredes de Tejastitlán 

Jimmy Santos-Rivera, guest conductor 

Arturo Márquez, arr. Nickel 

Danzon No. 2 

H. Owen Reed 

La Fiesta Mexicana 

Arturo Márquez 

Symphony no. 5, Sinfonía Nómada (consortium premiere)

Steinway Artist Presentation

John Fremgen, bass 
Daniel Dufour, drums 
Soha Quartet

Ross Margitza 
Huckleberry 

June 3rd 

For Amelie 

For Graham 

Discovery 

A Heart Fulfilled 

Remembrance 

The Wanderer

J.D. Burnett, conductor

Page Stephens, mezzo soprano

John Corigliano 

Fern Hill 

Omar Thomas 

Shenandoah 

Inocente Carreño  

Pregúntale a ese mar 

Gerald Custer 

Innisfree 

Paul John Rudoi 

As One Sky 

Jean Sibelius, arr. Morgan 

This is My Song (Finlandia) 

Johannes Brahms 

An die Heimat, Op. 64