The auditions for the California Women’s Chorus, Inc. (CWC) vocal music scholarships have concluded and two recipients have been chosen. Gianna Halpin and Anthony Whitson-Martini will perform and receive their scholarships at the 45th CWC scholarship concert, “It’s a Musical World” on May 4 at the Riverside Convention Center. The Verdugo Hills Women’s Chorus will participate in the upcoming concert along with 200 women from throughout the state of California.

Whitson-Martini has sung with the Point Loma Opera Theatre, Center Stage Opera, Opera Academy of California and Lyric Opera of San Diego. Recently he received the Encouragement Award from the Lotte Lenya Competition, first place in the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus Competition and first place in NATS in San Diego. He was also a finalist in the Musical Merit of San Diego Competition and in the Burbank Philharmonic Competition. His plans for this summer include performing as a company artist for the Utah festival of Opera and Musical Theatre where he will cover the roles of Marius and Montparnasse in “Les Miserables” and Lucas and Lutz in the “Student Prince.” In the fall, Whitson-Martini can be seen as Marullo in Pacific Lyric Opera’s production of “Rigoletto.”

Gianna Halpin is 19 years old and is currently a sophomore at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she has been studying with Cesar Ulloa.   Prior to this, she studied with Stephan Grimm for five years.

Music has been very important to Halpin and her family. She started singing at age 4 in a children’s choir. While in high school, she sang with her high school choir and in Pasadena Pro Music. She has performed in many musical productions at St. Francis High School in La Cañada that were directed by Emmanuel Eulalia. In her junior and senior years of high school at St. Monica Academy in Pasadena, she directed her school’s Schola.  Though currently studying vocal performance, her future plans are to focus on music therapy.

The CWC concert is open to the public and tickets are available at the box office for a donation of $20. Discounted tickets may be purchased in advance for $18 by contacting Connie Lynch conniepl@verizon.net. The box office will open at 1:30 p.m. and the concert will begin at 2 p.m.

Riverside Convention Center is located at 3637 Fifth St. in Riverside.

Provided by the CWC