2026 Karin Larson YourClassical Prize winner Tina O'Malley

Tina O'Malley of New Brighton, Minnesota, is the winner of the 2026 Karin Larson YourClassical Prize in the Preprofessional Musician category.

Her entry featuring her soprano performance of "When I was a Little Girl" from Kamala Sankaram's chamber opera A.E. Reverie was chosen by YourClassical listeners as the submission that best celebrated women in classical music. O'Malley receives a cash prize and a recording session in MPR’s renowned Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio.

Tina O’Malley’s winning Karin Larson YourClassical Prize, Preprofessional Musician category, entry

Share your story of why you selected your piece and how it celebrates women in classical music.

This piece, excerpted from the one-woman chamber opera A.E. Reverie by Kamala Sankaram, celebrates living women artists who are telling distinctly women-centered stories. Ms. Sankaram is a woman of color who is a member of MN Opera's New Works Initiative Cohort and whose new opera is opening MN Opera's upcoming season. A.E. Reverie is about a young woman who reveres Amelia Earhart and covets the freedom that Ms. Earhart experiences flying around the world, seemingly unrestrained by the same rigid gender norms imposed upon herself and other women in 1929 in the U.S. She feels different from other girls and misunderstood by her family and friends. I performed this piece this past fall and upon my conversations with the director, librettist, and composer, I concluded that this character is queer-coded and celebrates the many facets of gender expression before having the language to express her identity. This entire piece is a celebration of women throughout history who so desperately wanted a voice or tried hard to exercise their voice but felt powerless and unheard. I recognize these queer women of the past with such love and pride as their struggles heralded a time when more women are able to be their authentic selves and have the freedom to pursue the life that they desire for themselves. This queer girl is forever grateful to the bravery of those women who paved the way, and I find such joy in celebrating the legacy of these women onstage through song.

Tell us what winning the prize would mean to you personally.

This past year has been hard. While I have made more progress than ever before, both technically and professionally, challenges in my personal life have begun to hinder my professional success. My disabled brother has been hospitalized on a ventilator since August, and until then, I never would have imagined taking an emergency flight home from a summer opera program in Berlin hoping to make it home in time to say goodbye to my big brother. He miraculously survived, defying the odds, but his health continues to deteriorate. I have poured my entire heart into every single performance this season because every moment spent pursuing this wild career as a classical musician comes with massive sacrifice, but at the core of my artistry is the people I love. Winning this prize would mean that despite this difficult time, I can continue to do what I was put on this earth to do, fund projects in my community and beyond highlighting works of living women composers, and have a financial security net to be able to live close to my brother and help care for him while also having the necessary funds for audition trips to NYC. This is the first major time in my career that I have had to step back, reassess what is most important to me in life and determine how to find balance. I'm feeling a bit lost right now, but it has always been my beloved art form that shows me the way forward.