The Metropolitan Opera Announces 2016 National Council Winners

The Metropolitan Opera's annual National Council Auditions has to be a looming force over its contestants. The young contenders, who aim to make one of the top five positions and an astounding boost to their singing career, have been selected for 2016.

For the 2016 competition, the winners of the Met's national audition, which has produced stars such as Renee Fleming, Susan Graham and Lawrence Brownlee, are mezzo-soprano Emily D'Angelo, soprano Yelena Dyachek, baritone Sol Jin, countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński and baritone Sean Michael Plumb.

For the young talent, their performances are judged by a panel of experts from the classical music industry. And as the New York Times pointed out, it's not just a competition held in the largest opera house of the company and the city, it's also, reliably, the most rapid career-accelerating achievement in all of opera.

The competition, of course, aims at discovering unique youths who sing opera and bring them to the forefront of the genre and industry. And with over 60 years of judging in the can, it's a philanthropic venture by the company to give the young talent a chance at a professional career.

Congratulations to the finalists who will now begin their giant leap forward.

In case you were wondering who the 2016 finalists who performed last weekend were, look below to find out:

Yelena Dyachek, 24, soprano, (Western Region: Sacramento, CA); Lauren Feider, 23, soprano, (Southeast Region: New Holstein, WI); Emily D'Angelo, 21, mezzo-soprano, (Great Lakes Region: Toronto, Canada); Jakub Józef Orliński, 25, countertenor (New England Region: Warsaw, Poland, currently living in New York, NY); tenor Jonas Hacker, 27 (Middle Atlantic Region: Lake Delton, WI); Theo Hoffman, 22, baritone (Eastern Region: New York, NY); Sol Jin, 30, baritone (Eastern Region: South Korea, currently living in Fort Lee, NJ); Sean Michael Plumb, 24, baritone (Gulf Coast Region: Philadelphia, PA); and Brian Vu, 26, baritone (Southeast Region: Los Angeles, CA).

Also check out a previous National Council audition below for the time being.