Sara Shiff had taken her shot in the Minnesota Sings, a statewide singing competition, three times in the past – with a second-place showing in 2021. While she was pleased with that, it allowed her to compete this year in the Minnesota Sings “Ten Years in the Making – The Best of the Best” competition, where Shiff won first place.
Shiff, a Plymouth resident who’s a senior at Princeton University, won the all-star competition in October in St. Cloud, beating out 23 other singers for the $10,000 grand prize.
“The first time I made the finals but didn’t place, the second time I don’t think I made the finals. But the third time I got second place which meant I could compete in this,” she said. “To win was very exciting.”
Shiff was also granted a $500 donation to a charity of her choice; she chose to benefit Mayo Clinic’s Fibromyalgia clinic research, as her best friend suffers from the disease.
Shiff sang an operatic aria La Boheme by Puccini, called “Musetta’s Waltz” – “Quando me’n vo’” in the original Italian. Shiff is studying history and vocal performance, and will be auditioning for her Master’s in Opera Performance this winter. Her goal is to pursue a career as a professional opera singer.
Shiff said that the award money is going to help pay for the application costs and travel expenses that come with auditioning.
“It’s expensive. Every school costs between $100-$300 just to apply,” she said. She also had to submit videos of herself performing seven different pieces as a pre-screen audition. If she passes that stage, she’ll have to travel for auditions.
Singing an operatic piece wasn’t Shiff’s original plan.
“I had intended to do a mash-up where I would do the first part of the singing a more popular song,” she said. “For example, ‘Listen’ by Beyoncé and then doing and then transitioning into an operatic piece. But they actually didn’t allow me to do a mash-up, which ended up working out in my favor.”
Shiff said the competition featured a range of genres of music, and there were at least a couple of other opera singers; she did say she wasn’t able to listen to everyone who participated. She had been a little concerned about singing a genre that isn’t as well-known as some of the other songs she was up against.
“I think that in a competition, it doesn’t really matter what you sing. It’s more about how you sing it and what it shows off,” she said. “So for this situation, what mattered was your audience engagement, your performance skills and abilities, and how engaging the performance was.”
