University of Kentucky singer wins regional opera competition in Lexington

University of Kentucky bass Matthew Turner won the Mid-South Regional Round of the Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions in Lexington on Saturday and will compete in the national semifinals March 15 on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Turner will be joined by UK alum Reginald Smith Jr., who on Feb. 15 advanced to the semifinals out of the Southeast regional round in his hometown of Atlanta. Smith is now in the Houston Grand Opera Studio Program for young artists and has appeared in numerous Houston Grand Opera productions.

Turner, 27, earned a bachelor's degree in accounting and vocal performance at the University of Kentucky last year. He is a native of Jackson and lives in Lexington. Last fall, he shared the title role in the UK Opera Theatre production of Sweeney Todd.

The dual UK bass-baritone delegation to the Met National Semi-Finals is reminiscent of 2001-02, when Corey Crider advanced out of a regional round in Lexington and Mark Whatley advanced out of another regional. Whatley went on to the national finals. The last UK singer to advance to the national rounds of the Met Auditions was soprano Afton Battle in 2008.

In 1995, UK tenor Gregory Turay won the national competition.

This was the first regional semifinal in Lexington since 2008. Regional rounds used to come to Lexington, which always hosts the Kentucky District round, on a rotating basis. After a realignment of the competition, the Mid-South Regional was held regularly in Memphis. A change in the Memphis organization that hosted the auditions prompted the national organization to ask Lexington to host this year, according to regional co-chair Clifton Smith.

The audition was supposed to be open to the public, but due to inclement weather it was moved from UK's Memorial Hall to the UK Opera practice facility and closed to the public.

Saturday's runner-up was Huanhuan Ma, a soprano from Philadelphia who earned a master's degree from Peabody Conservatory last year. Encouragement award winners were bass Josh Quinn of Tampa, now studying at the New England Conservatory of Music, and bass Christopher Kenney of Hawley, Minn., who is pursuing a master's at UK.

This story was originally published February 22, 2015 at 6:44 PM with the headline "University of Kentucky singer wins regional opera competition in Lexington."