News

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Santa Barbara High’s Geoff Hahn reaches finalist level in National Classical Singer competition

Geoff Hahn, a junior at Santa Barbara High School and lead of the school’s spring musical “Singin’ In The Rain,” returned this week from New York City where he participated in the 2010 National Classical Singer three-day competition. He was one of eight finalists in the high school division. This is the only competition of its kind for classical vocalists at the high school level. The judges are selected from music conservatories and university vocal programs across the nation.

Geoff earned the right to participate because he qualified at the regional level in January at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, one of 36 locations in the country to screen 1,200 hopefuls. Two other students from Santa Barbara High, Jenna McIntyre and Bryce Lupoli, also competed in the regionals and continued on to the finals in New York.

The competition included master classes and the opportunity to meet with faculty from over 60 different academic music centers. As a finalist, Geoff sang at a concert in a packed auditorium. That evening, awards and scholarships were given to the finalists and Geoff received five different awards ranging from scholarships to prestigious summer programs to full scholarships to university vocal programs. In addition, he was offered a spot at Interlochen—a performing arts high school in the Midwest—on scholarship for his senior year of high school, an offer he will not accept as he wants to complete his senior year at Santa Barbara High School. For more information about the competition, go to http://www.classicalsinger.com/convention/hscomp/

(Photo by Stephanie Baker, courtesy the Hahn family.)