Felix Tomlinson and Nicola Sautoro, members of the Young Artists program at Chautauqua Institution, sing “Tonight” from West Side Story for The Rotary Club of Jamestown. Submitted photo

At a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Jamestown, Jim Smith, Program Committee member, introduced Carol Rausch, who has served as the chorus master/music administrator of the Chautauqua Opera and the Chautauqua Symphony since 1995.

Both were founded in 1929 and the Chautauqua Opera is the oldest continuing summer program in the United States.

Rausch is from New Orleans where she is also the chorus master/music administrator for the New Orleans Opera. She heads the Opera Department at Loyola University where she has prepared and conducted numerous opera productions.

Rausch holds degrees from Indiana University and The Ohio State University. She spent a year of study in Brussels, Belgium, as a Rotary Foundation Graduate Student as a recipient of an Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Rausch remains active as a recital pianist and often accompanies The Golf Coast regional auditions for the Metropolitan Opera National Council and has judged both the district and regional levels of competitions throughout the United States. She has won awards for both choral direction and for the company’s success in arts education throughout the Louisiana and Gulf Coasts.

Rausch introduced soprano Nicola Sautoro and tenor Felix Aguilar Tomlinson who are participants in Chautauqua Opera’s Young Artist Program. It is recognized as one of the best training programs for young singers in America today. The program has seen more than 1,000 artists participate. The program provides Young Artists with performance tools essential to establishing a professional career in opera. Every year, the Chautauqua Opera Artist Program attracts anywhere from 700 to 900 applicants, of which 400 are invited to auditions in the fall. From those auditions, 24 young artists are chosen to participate in the summer season.

Sautoro and Tomlinson presented “Simple Little Things” from 110 in the Shade; “Greenfinch and Linnet Bird” from Sweeney Todd; music from the Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown and “Tonight” from West Side Story.