COMPETITION

The Morgan Library and Museum
The George London Foundation Awards Competition Finals

The 46th George London Foundation Awards Competition offers substantial awards to the most promising performers through the annual juried competition for outstanding young North American opera singers.

The George London Foundation holds one of the oldest vocal competitions in the United States and Canada, offering among the most substantial awards to outstanding North American opera singers. In 2017 there will be 6 awards of $10,000 each, one of which will go to a Canadian singer and another to a singer preparing for a Wagnerian career. There will be 6 Encouragement Grants of $1,000 each. Honorable mentions of $500 will go to all finalists who do not receive an award. A pianist is provided for the preliminaries and the finals at no cost. Submission of the Application does NOT guarantee the Applicant an audition or grant.

18 young American and Canadian opera singers will perform with pianist Craig Rutenberg before a panel of judges and an enthusiastic audience at New York's Morgan Library & Museum, hoping to win a George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971.

Danielle Beckvermit, soprano
AaRon Blake, tenor
Michelle Bradley, soprano
Errin Brooks, tenor
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor
Jonas Hacker, tenor
Evanna Lai, mezzo-soprano
Will Liverman, baritone
Lauren Margison, soprano
Megan Marino, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Moody, countertenor
Andrea Núñez, soprano
Shea Owens, baritone
Cody Quattlebaum, baritone
Lara Secord-Haid, soprano
Carolyn Sproule, mezzo-soprano
Kyle van Schoonhoven, tenor
Brian Vu, baritone



The George London Foundation and George London Awards are named for the great American bass-baritone, who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young singers. The announcement will be made by George London's widow, Nora London, the foundation's president.

This will be the final round of the 46th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition, one of the oldest and most prestigious vocal competitions in the U.S. and Canada. The singers will be competing for a total of $75,000 in awards, including five George London Awards of $10,000 each.

This year's panel of judges included soprano Harolyn Blackwell, mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias, former Metropolitan Opera administrator Alfred F. Hubay, George LondonFoundation President Nora London, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, tenor and voice professor George Shirley, and baritone Richard Stilwell (who won a George London Award at the first competition, in 1971). The competition pianist is renowned collaborative pianist Craig Rutenberg.

Since 1971, the annual competition of The George London Foundation for Singers has been giving its George London Awards, and a total of more than $2 million, to an outstanding roster of young American and Canadian opera singers who have gone on to international stardom - the list of past winners includes Christine Brewer, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, and Dawn Upshaw.

http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2017/02/george-london-foundation-presents-a-heartening-show-of-young-opera-talent/

New York Classical Review

The George London Foundation, the brainchild of the great Canadian-American bass-baritone, exists to support the careers of young opera singers. Every year it awards singers who make their way through a competition made up of public recitals. The Final, held Friday afternoon at the Morgan Library, was both a testament to the talent the Foundation has honed through the competition, and a deeply affecting listening experience.

The concert was an exhibition of exciting vocal talent, and also of intriguing taste and discernment on the part of this new generation of singers. It was no surprise that the selection of arias (one for each of the eighteen performers) included famous ones like “Porgi amor” and “Tombe degli avi miei.” What was unexpected was the ambition shown through choices like the mad scene from Peter Grimes—sung with riveting directness by tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven—excerpts from the contemporary operas like John Adams’ Doctor Atomic and Flight by Jonathan Dove, and relative obscurities, like mezzo-soprano Evanna Lai’s tender rendition of “Things change, Jo,” from Mark Adamo’s Little Women. The reach for distinction, and the singers’ recognition of how these modern and contemporary arias fit into broader opera history, deepened the satisfactions of the vocalism.

All but one of the performances were technically and expressively accomplished, many were gripping, and the finest were stunning. The judges had the unfair task of picking five above all the others for the $10,000 top awards, but there were also three secondary awards, and each of the remaining ten singers received $1,000 (out of a total of $75,000 handed out).

Soprano Michelle Bradley won the George London-Leonie Rysanek Award, one of the top five, and she was easily the star of the day. With her gorgeous voice, rich, rounded, and violet colored, she sang Verdi’s “D’amor sull ali rosee” from Il Trovatore, and it was tremendous. Beyond the sheer beauty of her voice and her technical command, Bradley had clearly thought deeply about the music. The shape of her phrases distilled not only the character but the drama of the opera down to a musical essence.

There was considerable strength among the men, who made up ten of the finalists. Tenor Errin Duane Brooks sang “Siegmund heiß ich” form Die Walküre, and the strength, projection, and sheer excitement earned him the George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award for a potential Wagnerian singer. Will Liverman, baritone, also won one of the leading awards with his lovely, involved “Gregory’s Aria” from The Tsar’s Bride. Tenor Aaron Blake sang the Tomb aria from Lucia di Lammermoor, and though he sounded slightly stiff and constrained at first, his voice and expression opened up to a beautiful, vibrant emotional fullness, which earned him one of the top honors.

Soprano Lara Secord-Haid won the special award for a Canadian singer with a musical and subtle “Lied der Lulu,” by Alban Berg, from his opera Lulu.

Also unexpected quality was that there were two countertenors among the finalists. At 22, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen was the youngest in the finals, (and it was he who sang “Dawn, still darkness …” from Flight). Cohen’s voice had a prepubescent quality, which added to the intensity of his performance. Daniel Moody sang Oberon’s aria “I know a bank,” from Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (oddly, Britten and Gounod were the only composers represented twice). Moody was so inside the character that his singing seemed to come straight from the operatic stage.

A pair of arias from Gounod’s Faust provided two highlights of the concert. Tenor Jonas Hacker sang an affecting, sincere “Salut! demeure chaste et pure,” and bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum delivered a charismatic “Vous qui faites l’endormie,” relishing Mephistopheles’ devilish laugh.

Lauren Margison, a 24-year-old soprano, sang an elegant “Porgi amor,” idiomatic in the way she let the shape of Mozart’s music carry the expression. Mezzo-soprano Megan Marino’s “Connais-tu le pays,” from Mignon, was equally elegant, with a concentration on the musical line and the loveliness of her voice.

The baritone voices made up an exceptionally strong group. Shea Owens sang “Batter my heart” from Adams’ Doctor Atomic, and impressed with his expression while staying within the constraints of the music’s rhythms and phrases. The enormous power of the aria was focused through the deep warmth of his voice and the interpretive precision. Brian Vu sang “Kogda bi zhizn,” from Eugene Onegin, and the beauty of his voice carried the complex expression of Onegin’s feelings and social standing.

Craig Rutenberg did solid, yeoman’s work in the difficult task of accompanying 18 singers in different music. But it was the singers and the George London Foundation who provided the the dramatic and heartening music that made this such an impressive event, with the audience winners as well.