Still in her mid-20s, Cuban-American soprano Elena Villalón was a 2019 Grand Winner of both the Metropolitan Operas Laffont Competition and the Eleanor McCollum Competition at Houston Grand Opera, were she is currently a third-year studio artist. In partnership with pianist Kathleen Kelly, she makes her Washington debut presenting Vocal Arts DC’s Gerald Perman Fund for Emerging Artists Recital, offering songs by Hugo Wolf, Jean Sibelius and Sergei Rachmaninov, as well as selections by Latinx composts including Xavier Montsalvatge, Maria Grever and Federico Chapi, as well as the premiere of a newly commissioned work by up-and –coming composer Reinaldo Moya.