Soprano to Enter Finals in Moscow

Anaheim soprano Deborah Voigt, 28, will be in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday to compete in the finals of the international Tchaikovsky vocal competition.

Although perhaps best known for its piano competition, the Tchaikovsky Competition, held every four years, also has categories in violin, cello and voice. The competition, which began June 23, will conclude Thursday. Top prize for vocalists is 5,000 rubles, which, because of fluctuating exchange rates, would be worth between $140 and $480.

A graduate of Cal State Fullerton, Voigt most recently won the $20,000 first prize in the Rosa Ponselle International Vocal Competition in May at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. She received one of only three first-prize awards handed out since the inception of the competition in 1984.

She was a first-place winner in the annual international Busseto Verdi Competition in Busseto, Italy, in 1989, and was one of 40 winners in the Opera Company of Philadelphia-Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition in Philadelphia in 1988.

She also has been a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has been awarded a career grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.

She will be soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin later this month.

Three keynote speakers have been set for “Diversity of Thought: The Current NEA Controversy and Related Issues,” an organizational meeting planned July 12 to rally Orange County support for the embattled National Endowment for the Arts. The speakers are Bill Viola, a noted Long Beach video artist; Michael Hudson, vice president and general counsel for People for the American Way, a Washington-based organization that monitors First Amendment issues; and Jeffrey Chester, a political and media consultant. The free, 8 p.m. event will be at the Huntington Beach Civic Center, 2000 Main St., Huntington Beach. It is being organized by Orange County members of the Long Beach/Orange County Coalition for Freedom of Expression. Entertainment and refreshments will be offered. Information: (714) 960-9147.

Rock bands Lynx, Electric Tribe and Wild Bunch will team up for a benefit show for Adult Children of Abusive Parents, an organization that helps individuals who were abused during childhood to cope with lingering trauma. The concert will take place Sunday at 9:30 p.m. at Foul Play, 5902 Warner Ave., Huntington Beach. Information: (714) 840-6118.

The Grove Shakespeare Festival has added three performances to its current production of “Much Ado About Nothing” at the outdoor Festival Amphitheatre in Garden Grove. Extra performances of the comedy, reset to the late 1930s in Fascist Italy by director Jules Aaron, will be given at 8:30 p.m. on July 19, 20 and 21. Demand for tickets led to the extension, according to Thomas Bradac, festival producing artistic director. Information: (714) 636-7213.