Ithaca College

Caitlin Mathes, mezzo-soprano of Dayville, Connecticut, won the $15,000 First Prize in the finals of the 2011 Lotte Lenya Competition, held on April 16, 2011, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

The competition recognizes talented young singer/actors who are dramatically and musically convincing in contrasting modes of theater music by Kurt Weill and other composers. More than a vocal competition, the Lotte Lenya Competition is a theater singing competition that emphasizes wide-ranging repertoire and the acting of songs and arias within a dramatic context.