Susan (Stevie) Miller, a junior at Richard Montgomery High School, is one of 12 national finalists who will compete for one of three spots on the ChevronTexaco Opera Quiz Kids panel. The ChevronTexaco Opera Quiz Kids is a radio quiz program about opera that will be broadcast live from New York City on April 6 as the intermission feature of the ChevronTexaco-Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of Verdi’s Falstaff.

Miller won Round Two of the regional competition, held at the Kennedy Center on January 9, by answering a series of questions about operas and opera composers posed by representatives of ChevronTexaco, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Washington Opera. She now will travel to Houston, Texas in February for the final competition to decide the Quiz Kids panel members.

Her award as regional finalist was presented by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg a life-long opera fan.

A team of three Richard Montgomery students, including Miller, 12th grade student Steve Shema, and 10th grade student Katy Silina, rounded out the team that won the award for highest overall team score in the qualifying round in November. Shema also was a regional finalist.

Richard Montgomery has an outstanding record of success in this competition, with five of the nine Washington regional finalists in the three years the opera quiz has been in existence. The students are taught and coached by Richard Montgomery choral music teacher Ron Frezzo. The school has a popular course entitled Music Perspectives, and the topic of opera is included in other music courses.

Questions answered by the participants in the semifinal round included written examinations, oral quizzes and team interviews. Some questions required students to identify operas and characters from music excerpts and to interpret operatic story lines in contemporary terms.

The three students selected for the Quiz Kids panel will travel in April to New York City as the guests of ChevronTexaco for the broadcast and a weekend of special events.