Former Student Michelle DeYoung Joins Grand Rapids Symphony, Choruses for Mahler Symphony No. 3

THE RAPIDIAN (GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN) -- The mezzo soprano returned to California and studied first at San Francisco State University and then at California State University at Northridge, where her teacher told her that he wanted her to enter the Metropolitan Opera auditions.

“I laughed because I hadn’t done any competitions yet,” she recalled. “And he said, ‘I want you to be prepared, because you’re going to win, and they’re going to ask you to be a young artist.’”