George London Foundation to Welcome Lori Guilbeau & John Relyea in Recital, 3/9

Renowned bass John Relyea, who is performing in the Metropolitan Opera's current production of Rusalka with Renée Fleming; rising young soprano Lori Guilbeau, a 2010 George London Award winner; and pianist Warren Jones will share the stage for the second event in the season's George London Foundation Recital Series on Sunday, March 9, 2014, at 4:30 PM at The Morgan Library & Museum. The series presents pairs of outstanding opera singers, many of whom were winners of a George London prize early in their careers or are recent George London Award recipients. (Watch Lori Guilbeau's George London Award-winning performance of "Einsam in trüben Tagen" from Wagner's Lohengrin here, available in the George London Foundation website's Media Library.)

Ms. Guilbeau sings the world premiere of Brian Lowdermilk's Two Songs on James Joyce, as well as Wagner's "Dich, teure Halle" and songs by Rachmaninoff. Mr. Relyea performs Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death and songs by Richard Strauss. The two join for the program finale, "Or siam soli...Una donna son io!" from Verdi's La forza del destino. (The full program follows below.)

Of bass John Relyea's performance in Rusalka at the Metropolitan Opera, the Financial Times said that he "exudes basso authority" as the Water Sprite; earlier this season he was Pagano in Verdi's I Lombardi at the Hamburg State Opera. Last season at the Met, he performed Méphistophélès (called "enthusiastically oily" by The New York Times) in Faust, and made his role debut as Zaccaria in Nabucco at the Minnesota Opera, a performance hailed by the Minnesota Post as "powerful ... bringing resonant sound and believability."

A native of Golden Meadow, Louisiana, soprano Lori Guilbeau made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the High Priestess in Aida in 2012, for which The New York Times praised her "strong and luminous soprano." In 2012, Lori also made her Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra as Esmerelda in Schimidt's Notre Dame, about which Opera News said, "Resplendent soprano Lori Guilbeau sang the role with a soaring, rhapsodic sound." In May and June of this year, she makes her German debut with the role of Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Theater Kiel in Kiel, Germany.

Upcoming events in the George London Foundation's 2013-14 season include the annual competition, as well as the recital series' third event:

• The 43rd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition begins with three days of preliminary auditions and culminates with the final round and award ceremony open to the public. The 2014 competition takes place February 17-21, and the public is invited to attend the competition finals and awards announcement on Friday, February 21, 2014, at 4:00 PM.
• Christine Brewer, soprano, and Dominic Armstrong, tenor, with Craig Rutenberg, piano. Ms. Brewer is a 1991 George London Award winner; Dominic Armstrong just won the award in March 2013. Sunday, April 6, 2014, at 4:30 PM

The goal of the George London Foundation, the support and nurturing of young singers, was an abiding interest of the great American bass-baritone George London, who devoted a great part of the time and energy of his later years to this purpose. "Remembering his difficult road to success, George wanted to devise a way to make the road a little easier for future generations of singers," said George London Foundation President Nora London. Initially created under the auspices of the National Opera Institute, the George London Awards program has been administered since 1990 directly by the Foundation as a living legacy to George London's own exceptional talent and generosity. www.georgelondon.org

Hailed by The New York Times for her "beautiful tone and a graceful sense of phrasing" and by Opera News for her "soaring, rhapsodic sound", soprano Lori Guilbeau made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the High Priestess in Aida in 2012, and returned to sing the Celestial Voice in Don Carlo in 2013. In addition, she has joined the Met for its productions of Götterdämmerung and Nabucco. In 2012, Lori also debuted at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra as Esmerelda in Schimidt's Notre Dame and sang concerts at the Bard Summerscape Festival. Her upcoming engagements include her German debut as the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos with Theater Kiel, in addition to her role debut as Giorgetta in Il Tabarro in Norway. The soprano recently triumphed as a grand prize winner of the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and she recently sang a solo recital presented under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation and Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. She received critical acclaim in the title role of Fauré's Pénélope in her final year at the Manhattan School of Music, following her professional debut as Fiordiligi in Cosí fan tutte with Shreveport Opera.

Ms. Guilbeau was presented in recital at the Terrace Theater of the John F. Kennedy Center as part of the Conservatory Project Recital Series and she has sung concert programs for Verein Opera in Zurich and Den Nye Opera in Bergen. In addition to her Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and George London Award wins, she won First Prize in the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, First Prize in the Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition at Manhattan School of Music, and the Richard F. Gold Career Grand from the Shoshannah Foundation. She received the Beverly Sills Award from the Elardo International Opera Competition and both the Edvard Grieg and Audience Choice Award at the Solveig Competition in Oslo, Norway. The soprano received both her Master of Music and Bachelor of Music from Manhattan School of Music. www.loriguilbeau.com

John Relyea continues to distinguish himself as one of today's finest basses. This season, Mr. Relyea returns to the Metropolitan Opera as the Water Sprite in Rusalka and appears in a new production of I Lombardi at the Hamburg State Opera. He also appears in concert with the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Hamburg NDR.

He has appeared in many of the world's most celebrated opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera (where he is an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program and a former Adler Fellow), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Vienna State Opera, Theater an der Wien, and the Mariinksy Theater. His roles include the title roles in Attila, Le Nozze di Figaro, Bluebeard's Castle, Don Quixotte, Attila, and Aleko; Zaccaria in Nabucco, Bertram in Roberto le Diable, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Colline in La bohème, Don Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, Giorgio in I puritani, Banquo in Macbeth, Garibaldo in Rodelinda, Méphistophélès in both Faust and La Damnation de Faust, the Four Villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Escamillo in Carmen, Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Caspar in Der Freischutz, Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, and King René in Iolanta.

Mr. Relyea's recordings include the Verdi Requiem (LSO Live), Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (EMI), Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI), and the Metropolitan Opera's DVD presentations of Don Giovanni, I Puritani and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Deutsche Grammophon), and Macbeth (Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series). Mr. Relyea is the winner of the 2009 Beverly Sills Award and the 2003 Richard Tucker Award. www.johnrelyea.com

Warren Jones, who was named as "Collaborative Pianist of the Year" for 2010 by the publication Musical America, performs with many of today's best-known artists: Stephanie Blythe, Christine Brewer, Anthony Dean Griffey, Bo Skovhus, Eric Owens, and Richard "Yongjae" O'Neill-and is Principal Pianist for the exciting California-based chamber music group Camerata Pacifica. In the past he has partnered such great performers as Marilyn Horne, Håkan Hagegård, Kathleen Battle, Samuel Ramey, Barbara Bonney, Carol Vaness, Judith Blegen, Salvatore Licitra, Tatiana Troyanos, James Morris, and Martti Talvela. He is a member of the faculty of Manhattan School of Music as well as the Music Academy of the West, and received the "Achievement Award" for 2011 from the Music Teachers National Association of America, their highest honor. www.warrenjones.com