We love it when Classroom alums get recognized for their awesomeness. Such is the case for soprano Sonya Yoncheva. In addition to receiving the Opera Award by the Chilean Art Critics Circle, Sonya is on the cover of the Metropolitan Opera's wall calendar this year. We thought this was a great occasion to rerun her episode of Classical Classroom and to say, "You go, gworl."

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In our first MusicWorks episode (that's our storytelling-centered subseries), soprano Sonya Yoncheva tells the story of how she happened upon her passion – singing opera – by being true to herself (and listening to her mother) and by practicing her buns off. This put her in a position to be ready when she got that call from the Met to fill in at the last moment. And the rest, as they say, is in the podcast.

Audio production by Todd "Totally" Hulslander with awesomeness by Dacia Clay.

Music in this episode:

• Giacomo Puccini: La Boheme – Donde lieta usci
• Charles Lecocq: Les Cent Vierges, Act III, No. 10 Je soupire et maudis le destin
• Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata – Sempre libera
• Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea – "Pur ti Miro" (Sonya Yoncheva & Max Emanuel Cencic)
• W. A. Mozart: Il Re Pastore – "L'Amero saro costante" (Sonya Yoncheva & Marc Minkowski)
• Charles Gounod – Faust Final Trio – Anges Purs – Sonya Yoncheva, Joseph Calleja & Bryn Terfel

Learn about composer George Heathco's piece, "ReGifting Lions", part of our MusicWorks intro, and oh-so-much more about him at www.georgeheathcomusic.com.