Singer from Miami is finalist in national contest
BY BEA L. HINES
BHINES@MIAMIHERALD.COM
A Warm Friends and Neighbors Salute to Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste, our very own diva, who recently was chosen a finalist to compete in the Irene Dalis Competition in San Jose, Calif. Jean Baptiste was one of 10 finalists chosen from more than 100 professional singers. As a finalist, Jean-Baptiste automatically received a $2,000 award.
The concert for the finalists was held on May 21 in San Jose, where Jean-Baptiste also received the $1,000 Wagner Prize, given to the competitor who offered among the pieces they performed for the judges an aria by Richard Wagner. A requirement for this award was that the competitor had the correct "vocal characteristics" necessary to perform the German composer’s difficult music.
Jean-Baptiste was born in New York to Haitian parents, but moved with her family to Miami when she was 9. She once said that she never thought about being an opera singer until she was in college. She graduated from Miami’s MAST High School and had planned to study medicine at Loyola University. Then she discovered her passion: singing.
Now 31, Jean-Baptiste still studies with her voice teacher Oscar Diaz Jr., whenever she is in Miami. Diaz is the executive director of Performer’s Music Institute.
"I’m very proud of her," he said.
