MANSFIELD, PA— Two Mansfield University Vocal Performance alumni won national recognition for their singing this spring. Jordan Schreiner won first prize in the Edward M. Murray International Competition of Voice. Sarah Polinski earned an Honorable Mention in the National Hal Leonard Vocal Competition in the Musical Theatre category.
Held in Ithaca, NY, the final round of the Edward M. 
Murray International Competition of Voice brought 20 singers, selected from 75 applicants from all over the world, to compete for prizes including contracts with Opera Ithaca and other companies. Singers were required to present four to six pieces, fulfilling a variety of requirements.
In the final round, Schreiner sang Pourqoui me réveiller from Massenet’s Werther, New York Lights from William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge, and the Witch’s aria from Hänsel und Gretel by Humperdinck.
Schreiner graduated from MU in 2014 with a B.M. in Vocal Performance and Elective Studies in Music Business: Management. He is currently a Resident Artist at Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton.
Polinski, a December 2016 graduate in Vocal Performance and Music Education, submitted a video to the National Hal Leonard Vocal Competition, an entirely online competition. This is the seventh year of the 
competition, which had over a thousand entrants this year. There is no entry fee, making it accessible to any qualifying singer, from any location in North America and U.S. territories, who records a video comprised of songs from the required repertoire, and then posts it on the internet. This eliminates the commonly encountered expenses of travel to a designated destination on a specific date, as is the case in conventional music competitions.
In addition, all competition videos are available on YouTube, so interested parties can see Polinski’s video, along with the videos of the other winners, finalists, and semi-finalists, by clicking here.
Polinski earned state-wide recognition as the winner of the Syed R. Ali-Zaidi Academic Excellence Award and the PASSHE Fitz Dixon Memorial Scholarship Award. She is currently in New York City, performing in Ellis Island: Gateway to a Dream, a touring musical for young audiences with Sundog Theatre Company, and is working for the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
To learn more about studying music at Mansfield, go to music.mansfield.edu