A total of three Hope College students and one high school student who study voice at Hope earned honors in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Michigan State Chapter Auditions, held at Grand Valley State University in Allendale on Saturday, Nov. 3.
The Hope students earned two second-place awards and one third place award, and the high school student earned a first-place award. A total of 247 students from colleges and universities and high schools from throughout the state competed in about 15 categories.
Jenna Buck, a 2012 Hope graduate from Elburn, Ill., who is continuing studies at the college, placed second in the Advanced Men and Women category.
Jared Duimstra, a sophomore from Appleton, Wis., placed second in the Second-Year College Men category.
Rosemary Walsh, a freshman from Evanston, Ill., placed third in the First-Year College Women category.
Jamie Colburn, a sophomore at Holland High School, earned first place in the High School Musical Theatre category. Colburn had placed first in the High School Men category last year.
Buck, Walsh and Colburn are students of Linda LeFever Dykstra, who is an associate professor of music and chair of the voice division at Hope. Duimstra is a student of JungWoo Kim, an assistant professor of music at Hope.
The auditions provided cash prizes and a chance for the first-place winners to sing in an honors recital at the end of the day. In addition, all of the first-, second- and third-place honorees will have the opportunity to compete in the Great Lakes Regional Auditions in March, competing with other student winners from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Ontario, Canada.