Twelve exceptionally talented young singer-actors from the United States, United Kingdom, and China will compete for top prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500 in the finals of the 2011 Lotte Lenya Competition on Saturday, April 16, at the Eastman School of Music.
The contestants will compete in front of a panel of judges composed of singer-actress and three-time Tony Award nominee Rebecca Luker; Broadway and Encores! music director Rob Berman; and Theodore S. Chapin, president of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization and chairman of the board of the American Theater Wing.
Among the finalists is tenor Trevor Strader, who received his bachelor’s degree at Eastman in 2010. While at Eastman, Strader performed roles in productions of The Turn of the Screw, Le Nozze di Figaro, and The Secret Garden. He will be appearing locally again as a member of the barbershop quartet in Geva’s production of The Music Man starting April 25.
The Lotte Lenya Competition is sponsored by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music in Manhattan. It was founded in 1998 by Kim H. 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. The international competition recognizes talented young singer-actors, aged 19-30, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire, and emphasizes the acting of songs within a dramatic context. The finalists were selected from a group of 30 semi-finalists who auditioned on March 11-12 in New York City. Natalie Ballenger, a senior at the Eastman School of Music, was one of the semi-finalists and received an Emerging Talent Award.
For the finals, each singer will present an aria from the opera or operetta repertoire; two songs from the American musical theater repertoire; and a theatrical selection by Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya’s husband and one of the most versatile and influential theater composers of the 20th century (The Threepenny Opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Lady in the Dark, Street Scene).
The finals round will take place between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 to 3 p.m. At 8 p.m., the competition will culminate with an evening concert featuring all of the finalists, followed by the announcement of the winners. Special prizes will be awarded in addition to the top prizes. Both the daytime finals and evening concert are free and open to the public, and will take place in Kilbourn Hall.
The 2011 finalists competing on April 16 are: Alisa Suzanne Jordheim, soprano (Appleton, Wis.); Matt Leisy, tenor (New York, N.Y.); Jing Lin, soprano (Putian, China); Caitlin Mathes, mezzo-soprano (Dayville, Conn.); Chris Pinnella, bari-tenor (Brielle, N.J.); Daniel Schwait, baritone (Baltimore, Md.); Emma Sewell, soprano (London, England); Jacob Lewis Smith, bass/baritone (Albuquerque, N.M.); Peabody Southwell, mezzo-soprano (Los Angeles, Calif.); John Viscardi, tenor (Philadelphia, Pa.); Jorell Williams, baritone (Brentwood, N.Y.); and Strader (Queensbury, N.Y.).
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Saturday, April 16
Lotte Lenya Competition Final Round. Twelve contestants from the United States, United Kingdom, and China compete for prizes in this international competition for musical theater singer-actors.
11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 3 p.m.
Kilbourn Hall, 26 Gibbs St.
Free
Saturday, April 16
Lotte Lenya Competition Evening Concert and Announcement of Winners
8 p.m.
Kilbourn Hall, 26 Gibbs St.
Free