Jesse Donner

ISU alumnus Jesse Donner accepted to the prestigious Chicago Lyric Opera's Ryan Opera Center Young Artist program for the 2014 - 2015 season. The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center welcomes three new members to the Center's 2014-2015 Ensemble - soprano Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi, tenor Jesse Donner, and bass Bradley Smoak. Since its inception, the Ryan Opera Center, the professional artist-development program of Lyric Opera of Chicago, has been recognized as one of the premier programs of its kind in the world. That standing is maintained by providing the finest up-and-coming singers with unparalleled training and experience. Each year the Ryan Opera Center selects gifted young singers from some 400 applicants. Soon after arriving at Lyric in the spring, incoming Ryan Opera Center members begin an intensive full-year residency under the guidance of Dan Novak, director, Craig Terry, music director, and Gianna Rolandi, vocal consultant, as well as numerous other opera professionals. Coaching sessions and master classes are augmented by performance and understudy experience in Lyric Opera’s regular season productions as well as other Ryan Opera Center concerts and recitals. This presents an extraordinary opportunity to work with the world's greatest opera singers, conductors, directors, orc hestra, and chorus. (Until September 2006, the program was known as the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.) - See more at: http://www.lyricopera.org/about/ryanopera.aspx Jesse Donner, from Urbandale, Iowa, is a 2007 graduate of Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, and is a 2011 Vocal Performance graduate of Iowa State University (where he was mentored by Simon Estes). He went on for his Masters in Vocal Performance at the University of Michigan, where he is currently pursuing a further post-graduate Specialist Degree in Vocal Performance. Jesse is the son of Lynette ('81 pol sci), and Dan ('79 comp sci). Brother Jordan is a current chemical engineering student at Iowa State.