Hot news: Student, 22, wins Met audition
mainHugo A. Valverde Villalobos, a 22 year-old horn student at Rice University, has won the vacancy for second horn at the Metropolitan Opera.
He succeeds Michelle Reed Baker, who retired last week after 27 years.
Hugo, from Costa Rica, has been studying for this chance since he was seven years old.
Rice University seems to turn out a lot of top players. People don’t just shoot each other out there in Texas.
The horn professor, Bill Vermeulen, is a fabulous artist and enormously successful pedagogue.
He’s also Houston Symphony’s principal horn.
So happy for Hugo! Before his 2 year master,s at Rice he spent his 4 year bachelor,s at Lynn University in Florida, a wonderfull tuition free music program.