USC Thornton alum and mezzo-soprano Shabnam Kalbasi (MM, ’12) won first place and the “Artist of the Year” award in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Young Artist Competition.
Kalbasi has performed as Kate Julian in USC’s West Coast Premiere production of Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave and as Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Bay Area Summer Opera Institute. She has sung Marcellina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with the Amalfi Coast Music Festival and Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium with UC Irvine Opera. Kalbasi is a past award recipient of the California Women’s Chorus competition and the Intimate Opera Company competition