Judges Set For 2011 LOTTE LENYA COMPETITION

Three-time Tony Award nominee Rebecca Luker, Broadway and Encores! music director Rob Berman, and Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization president Theodore S. Chapin will serve as judges for the 2011 Lotte Lenya Competition.

The Competition, held annually by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, is an international theater singing contest that 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. Prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500, as well as additional special prizes, will be awarded.

Twelve finalists have made it through two rounds of auditions, and were selected from a group of thirty semi-finalists after a semi-final round in Manhattan on March 11-12. Finalists will compete for top prizes on April 16, 2011, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Each contestant will perform a program that includes four selections: an aria from the opera or operetta repertoire; two songs from the American musical theater repertoire (one pre-1968 and one from 1968 or later); and a theatrical selection by Kurt Weill.

The 2011 finalists are: Alisa Suzanne Jordheim, soprano (Appleton, WI); Matt Leisy, tenor (New York, NY); Jing Lin, soprano (Putian, China); Caitlin Mathes, mezzo-soprano (Dayville, CT); Chris Pinnella, bari-tenor (Brielle, NJ); Daniel Schwait, baritone (Baltimore, MD); Emma Sewell, soprano (London, England); Jacob Lewis Smith, bass/baritone (Albuquerque, New Mexico); Peabody Southwell, mezzo-soprano (Los Angeles, CA); Trevor Strader, tenor (Queensbury, NY); John Viscardi, tenor (Philadelphia, PA); and Jorell Williams, baritone (Brentwood, NY).

About the Kurt Weill Foundation
The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. (http://www.kwf.org) is dedicated to promoting understanding of the life and works of composer Kurt Weill (1900-1950) and preserving the legacies of Weill and his wife, actress-singer Lotte Lenya (1898-1981). The Foundation administers the Weill-Lenya Research Center, a Grant Program, the Kurt Weill Book Prize and the Lotte Lenya Competition, and publishes the Kurt Weill Edition and the Kurt Weill Newsletter.