San Francisco Opera Announces Emerging Stars Competition Winners

Soprano Yaritza Véliz is the winner of the 2022–23 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition

San Francisco Opera's Emerging Star of the Year award is made possible by the Emerging Stars Fund, established through a multi-year, multimillion-dollar gift from Company benefactors Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem. Now in its fifth year, their gift provides crucial support for San Francisco Opera to celebrate rising artists and engage the opera community. Past recipients of the Emerging Star of the Year award include soprano Andriana Chuchman, baritone Lucas Meachem and tenors Arturo Chacón-Cruz and Atalla Ayan.

The 2022-23 winner is Chilean soprano Yaritza Véliz, who made her Company debut this summer as Catrina, the Keeper of the Dead, in Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego) — the Company’s first Spanish-language opera commission.

Based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 11 to August 4, 2023, the competition will award Véliz a $10,000 cash prize.

Véliz was one of fourteen nominees appearing in San Francisco Opera’s 2022–23 Season with support from the Manetti Shrems’ Emerging Stars Fund who were nominated for the competition. The other nominees were sopranos Amina Edris, Deanna Breiwick, Michelle Bradley, and Meigui Zhang; mezzo-sopranos Taylor Raven and Aigul Akhmetshina; countertenors Jake Ingbar and Jakub Józef Orliński; tenors Evan LeRoy Johnson, Ben Bliss, David Butt Philip, and Jonathan Tetelman, and bass-baritone Gordon Bintner.

“I’m delighted and honored to have been named the winner of the Emerging Stars Competition: thank you so much to everyone who voted! Congratulations to my fellow nominees, all of whom are exceptional artists and colleagues," Yartiza Véliz said. "I would like to thank the whole team at San Francisco Opera: El último sueño de Frida y Diego is a truly remarkable work, and I shall treasure this experience—and my time in your wonderful city —forever!”

"Jan and I were thrilled when we learned that Yaritza Véliz won the 2023 Emerging Stars Competition," said Maria Manetti Shrem. We are committed to celebrating all the wonderful new artists at San Francisco Opera, who are important to keeping the art form fresh and inspiring. We are happy to continue supporting this competition, and we are excited to give this year's award to Yaritza for her Company debut this summer in Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego.”