January 21 - Rachel Roby, a senior vocal performance major at Shorter College, walked away with top honors at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Southern Division Competition for Young Artists held Jan. 18. Having won the state competition in November, Roby now advances to the national competition on March 30 in Atlanta.

In order to win the region title, Roby edged out performers from nine states, including Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina. Having just finished a series of performances as Cinderella in Shorter’s most recent opera on Jan. 15 and 16, Roby also sang in the Shorter Chorale’s Music One-On-One performance Jan. 17.

For the MTNA competition, Roby was required to prepare 25 minutes’ worth of music or a minimum of eight songs.  “This must include two arias of contrasting style, a German Lied, a French Melodie, an Art Song written after 1900, and anything else from those categories that will add up to the allotted time,” Roby said.