Miss Alaska Scholarship Foundation

BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News

Soprano Sydnee Waggoner won the Anchorage Festival of Music scholarship competition and will perform Aug. 28, 2009, in a recital with Elena Bird, the co-winner, at 7:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 3900 Wisconsin St

Sydnee will be attending the following program this August 09;

"When Metropolitan Opera/Grammy Award Winner Opera Star, baritone

Sherrill Milnes decided to create a means for singers to advance in

their careers he did so by giving them the highest level of educators

and more importantly, the opportunity to perform for people who might

not ever see a Broadway show or Opera… with the help of his wife,

soprano, Maria Zouves, V.O.I.C.Experience – “VE” - was founded in

2001. Now it is one of the leading operatic, vocal training and

outreach programs in the world, enjoying six years of quality

programs, performance and community interaction…"

It first starts at Disney, a program for all ages, but features a

special program focusing on the young artist at Walt Disney World.

Coaches and Teachers from the Operatic World work with carefully

chosen young singers to introduce and offer professional guidance to

the very enthusiastic young singer. At the end of this week long

program, Sydnee will will sing for Disney, Opera Directors, Educators and

Agents in our 3rd Annual Auditions Project. The following two weeks

continue with singers ages 21 and up post-grad/preprofessional &

professional level for programming in residence with Opera Tampa and

the Tampa Bay area, working with arts organizations in the communities

of Tampa Bay for a full schedule of coachings, lessons, master

classes, outreach concerts

Sydnee Nicole Waggoner is a 22 year-old soprano born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She has been praised both for her evocative dramatic affect and intuitive comedic timing as both a musician and innate actress. Attending on full academic scholarship, she is a 2009 cum laude graduate of Boston University’s College of Fine Arts with a Bachelor’s of Music in Voice Performance and minor in French Language & Literature. 

During her four years at BU, Sydnee was a featured national anthem singer for the NCAA Men’s Hockey National Champions, the Boston Terriers. At the local level, Sydnee recently garnered the 2009 Young Alaskan Artist Award through the Anchorage Festival of Music and was both the College Division Winner of the Anchorage Concert Chorus’s Vocal Scholarship Competition in 2007 and the winner of the High School Division in 2005. 

Sydnee was an inaugural member of Boston University’s Opera Project, and later selected by audition as an undergraduate soprano to study with Boston University’s prestigious Opera Institute training program as a two-year participant in the subsidiary Opera Workshop. She has sung with the BU Symphonic and Chamber Choruses, performing with the BU Symphonic Orchestra in their debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006.  She was also a featured soloist with Boston University’s Women’s and Concert Choruses. She also attained recording and live-performance credits on premiere works  by musicologist and PhD candidate, Basil Considine, as well as vocals featured on There’s a World track by nationally recognized performing organization Events, Inc. of Alaska.

Sydnee has been a singer in summer residence with OperaTampa’s and Disney’s V.O.I.C.Experience with Sherril Milnes in 2007, 2008 and 2009; in 2007, she was also granted a Young Artist Scholarship to work with the Florestan Project at Songfest Young Artist Program at Pepperdine. She has previously attended Portland State University’s Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute in 2004 & 2005 as their youngest singer, studied jazz at the University of North Texas Vocal Jazz Workshop, and attended the Dallas Summer Musicals’ artistic program for young singers. Her devotion as a musician was witnessed early on as she was granted an audition and was chosen to perform as the carrying soprano soloist in Vaughan William’s Dona Nobis Pacem with the Anchorage Youth Symphony in 2002.  Her repertoire to date includes Susanna in le Nozze di Figaro, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Despina in Così fan tutte, Hanna in The Merry Widow, Gilda in Rigoletto, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Amore in Paride et Elena.

In addition to her commitment as a singer, Sydnee’s performance background includes over 15 years of diverse dance, acting and performance training. She is an accomplished musician, formerly a violinist with the Grammy Award winning East Anchorage High School Orchestra, and was recognized for her piano composition on the State Level Recognition of Alaska Reflections Art Program at age 13. She plans to pursue her Master’s Degree or Artist Diploma after completing her reign as Miss Alaska 2009, representing her home state in the Miss America Pageant.