Kentucky native, UK grad Key’mon Murrah to compete in World Opera Competition

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ/Press Release) – Kentucky native and University of Kentucky graduate Key’mon W. Murrah has been selected to compete in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, The World Opera Competition 2021.

Murrah will travel to Moscow, Russia to compete against classical singers from around the world.

The 2021 edition of Operalia will be held in Moscow, Russia from Monday, October 18 to Sunday, October 24, at the historic Bolshoi Theatre. 

Operalia was founded in 1993 by Plácido Domingo to discover and help launch the careers of the most promising young opera singers of today.

Operalia’s goal is to attract singers between the ages of eighteen and thirty-two, of all voice types from and all over the world, to have them audition and be heard by a panel of distinguished international personalities, in the most prestigious and competitive showcase in the world.

Key’mon W. Murrah, a countertenor heralded for his wide range and “hot coals-core of tone”, from Schmopera.com, is a native to Louisville, Kentucky and a resident of Lexington, Kentucky.

Murrah has received his degree from the University of Kentucky. He has sung in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with the Red River Lyric Opera and Vivaldi’s Montezuma with the America Baroque Opera Co.

Murrah was selected in the 2019 Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in a Masterclass with Joyce DiDonato. In 2020, he toured with the American Spiritual Ensemble and was a young artist at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. 

Each year, Operalia receives hundreds of applications. A pre-selection jury listens to every recording submitted and chooses the top candidates (between 30 and 40) to participate in that year’s competition.

The international jury, presided by Plácido Domingo, listens to each of the chosen participants during two days of quarterfinals.

Twenty participants are then selected to continue to the semifinals, and ten singers are chosen for the finals. The quarterfinals and semifinals are carried out in audition form, but the final round is presented in the form of a gala concert accompanied by full orchestra.

Participating or even winning a prize in this competition is only the beginning of every singer’s relationship with Operalia. Since the jury is comprised, for the most part, of international opera managers and casting directors, these distinguished jurors often invite and engage some of the singers to perform in productions that are being scheduled in their respective theatres.

In 2018, Murrah won the Encouragement Award for the Metropolitan Opera Council Central District Auditions, and 2nd place in the Emerging Soloists Competition.

In 2020 he won first place in the Camille Coloratura Competition, he was a semi-finalist in the MONC Auditions, and in 2021 he was the 2nd Place for the Rochester Oratorio Society Competition, Grand Prize winner of the Premiere Opera Foundation + NYIOP International Vocal Competition, and the 1st Place winner of the HGO Eleanor McCollum Competition.

In 2021, Mr. Murrah will be joining the Studio Artist Program at the Florida Grand Opera and singing Bertarido from Handel’s Rodelinda at the Aspen Music Festival.

This fall, he will continue his studies at University of Kentucky, singing Handel’s Messiah at the Great Bend Center of Music, and making his debut as Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at Seattle Opera.