Fifteen exceptionally talented young singing actors from the United States and Europe will compete for prizes of more than $25,000 in the finals of the 2008 Lotte Lenya Competition, which will be held at the Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall on Saturday, April 12. Traveling to Rochester from as far away as Berlin and Helsinki, this year’s finalists have an unusually wide range of performing experience, from opera to cabaret and avant-garde music, from the Off-Broadway stage to jazz and rock, and include an Eastman alumna.
Judges for this year’s finals are equally diverse: Broadway star Victoria Clark, Tony Award-winning leading lady of The Light in the Piazza and an esteemed director and teacher; Theodore S. Chapin, president of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization and author of the book Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical “Follies;” and James Holmes, conductor of opera, American musicals, and concerts, including many Kurt Weill productions, in Great Britain and across Europe.
The Lenya Competition has grown into an internationally recognized theater singing competition since its founding in 1998 by Kim Kowalke, the Richard L. Turner Professor in Humanities at the University of Rochester, professor of musicology at the Eastman School, and president of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.
The 15 finalists were chosen from more than 160 contestants at regional competitions and video submissions. They are: Tora Augestad, 28, mezzo-soprano, from Berlin, Germany; Diana Rose Becker, 22, soprano, of East Northport, N.Y., who was a double major in voice performance and music education and graduated from the Eastman School in 2007; Candice Bondank, 23, soprano, Lawrence, Kan.; John Brancy, 19, baritone, Mullica Hill, N.J.; Steven Ebel, 28, tenor, Astoria, N.Y.; Steven Herring, 32, baritone, New York City; Lauren Jelencovich, 23, soprano, New York City; Rebecca Jo Loeb, 25, mezzo-soprano, New York City; Ashley Logan, 25, soprano, Princeton, N.J.; Ariela Morgenstern, 29, mezzo-soprano, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Margaret Peterson, 22, mezzo-soprano, New York City; Elizabeth Reiter, 22, soprano, New York City; Michael Scarcelle, 32, bass-baritone New York City; Maija Skille, 30, mezzo-soprano, Helsinki, Finland; and Bray Wilkins, 27, tenor, Moscow, Idaho.
Each finalist will present a varied program, including an opera/operetta aria, an American musical theater number, and two contrasting Kurt Weill selections. The first round, when each contestant will sing his or her full 13-minute program, runs from 11 a.m. until 3:15 p.m. The evening concert featuring all finalists begins at 8 p.m., and winners will be announced immediately thereafter.
Previous winners of the Lenya Competition continue to light up major opera and musical theater stages, demonstrating their versatility. Elaine Alvarez, the 2003 prizewinner, made a critically acclaimed debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago in fall 2007, portraying Mimi in La Bohème. Other prizewinners have appeared at the Metropolitan Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Past winners Richard Todd Adams, Amy Justman, and Erik Liberman have played roles in Broadway musicals, and Justman’s performance in Company was broadcast nationwide this winter by PBS.
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Calendar Listing:
April 12
11 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Lotte Lenya Competition Finals, First Round. Each of the 15 finalists presents a program including an aria, musical theater number, and two Kurt Weill songs.
Eastman School of Music, Kilbourn Hall
26 Gibbs St.
Free
April 12
8 p.m.
Lotte Lenya Competition Finals Evening Concert. Winners announced immediately after all finalists perform.
Eastman School of Music, Kilbourn Hall
26 Gibbs St.
Free