Ben Edquist, B.Mus. ’13, won the $15,000 first prize in the finals of the 2014 Lotte Lenya Competition, sponsored by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and held on April 12, 2014, in Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.
At the Blair School, Edquist studied under Jonathan Retzlaff. Edquist is now a first-year graduate student at Rice University. His operatic roles have included Sid in Albert Herring, Charlie in Three Decembers, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Him-Baritone in Trouble in Tahiti, and Sir John Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Edquist was a member of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio during the summer of 2013 and performed the role of Antonio while also covering the role of Baron di Trombonok in Il viaggio a Reims with the Wolf Trap Opera Company. He has performed many musical theater roles with Light Opera Oklahoma and Brazosport Center Stages, including Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Roy in The Light in the Piazza, Barnaby Tucker in Hello, Dolly!, and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. This summer, he will play the role of Jigger in Carousel with the Glimmerglass Festival.