Timothy Nolen (Phantom, Cyrano), Lisa Vroman (Phantom, Les Misérables), and Rob Berman (Broadway, regional, and Encores! Music Director) have been named judges for the 2010 Lotte Lenya Competition, an annual international competition that recognizes talented young singer-actors, aged 19-32, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire. Prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500, as well as additional special prizes, will be awarded.
More than a vocal competition, the Lenya Competition is a theater singing competition that emphasizes the acting of songs within a dramatic context. As Kim Kowalke, president of the
Kurt Weill Foundation for Music (which holds the competition) points out, "The finest voices don't necessarily win. It's the combination of acting and singing that matters."
A unique feature of the
Lotte Lenya Competition is that, in addition to singing an aria and a song from the American musical theater, contestants must prepare two contrasting songs by
Kurt Weill, 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, Street Scene, Lady in the Dark). Nolen, Vroman and Berman are no strangers to Weill. Nolen has twice played Trinity Moses in Weill's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny; Vroman has played Anna 1 in multiple productions of The Seven Deadly Sins and Lucy Brown in The Threepenny Opera; and Berman music directed Lady in the Dark starring
Andrea Marcovicci at the
Prince Music Theater.
As performers, Nolen and Vroman exemplify the kind of versatile singer-actors the competition seeks to recognize. Nolen, who starred in Phantom of the Opera and Cyrano on Broadway, has also appeared in dozens of operas on such stages as the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Vroman has starred in Phantom and Les Misérables on Broadway, The Most Happy Fella with New York City Opera, and Kiss Me, Kate with Glimmerglass Opera, among many other credits. They appeared together in the San Francisco Symphony's Emmy Award winning Sweeney Todd in Concert, with Nolen playing Judge Turpin to Vroman's Johanna.
Also accomplished in a broad range of musical theater, Berman has music directed Finian's Rainbow, The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town,
Irving Berlin's White Christmas (Broadway), Candide, Floyd Collins (
Prince Music Theater) and Sunday in the Park with George (Kennedy Center).
In this year's competition, 230 contestants from 12 countries entered a first round of auditions, evaluated by regional judges
John Lucas,
David Green,
Lauren Flanigan and
Paulette Haupt. This was the largest number of contestants, with the greatest international participation (nearly 20%), in the history of the competition. The increased talent pool also yielded the greatest number of finalists; 16 exceptionally talented singer-actors have been selected to compete in the finals at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., on April 17, for a top prize of $15,000. The culmination of the competition will be a free public performance by the finalists, followed by announcement of the winners.
The 2010 finalists are:
Betty Allison and Andrew Love of Toronto, Canada; David Arnsperger of Berlin, Germany; Rebekah Camm of Southbury, Conn.; Ginger Costa-Jackson of Sandy, Utah; Adam Fry of Langhorne, Pa.; Elise LaBarge of St. Louis; Edward Mout of Chicago; Sara
Ann Mitchell of Brookline, Mass.; Kyle Scatliffe of Westwood, N.J.; and
Benjamin Eakeley, Margaret Gawrysiak, Cooper Grodin, Minda Larsen, Timothy McDevitt, and Joey Wilgenbusch of New York City. Already, these young performers have an impressive roster of credits, including Broadway, national tours and appearances at Canadian Opera Company,
Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera,
Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Minnesota Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Chautauqua Opera,
Wolf Trap Opera, Spoleto Festival, and Theater Hagen (Germany).
Previous winners have gone on to play leading roles on Broadway, in regional theaters and national tours (
Richard Todd Adams, Kyle Barisich, Jennifer Dyan Goode,
Zachary James,
Amy Justman,
Erik Liberman,
Lauren Worsham); appear in leading roles in major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera,
Houston Grand Opera, Opéra National de Paris and Deutsche Oper Berlin (
Nicole Cabell, Elaine Alvarez, Lucas Meachem, Liam Bonner, Rodell Rosel); and sing in concert in the Tanglewood, Spoleto and
Ravinia Festivals. Collectively, they have earned dozens of prizes in some of the world's most prestigious vocal competitions, including winning the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition (
Nicole Cabell) and Grand Prize of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Paul Corona).
About the
Lotte Lenya Competition
The
Lotte Lenya Competition, an annual international theater singing competition held by the
Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, honors the legacy of legendary singer/actress
Lotte Lenya (1898-1981), who was one of the foremost interpreters of the music of her husband,
Kurt Weill (1900-1950). The competition recognizes talented young singer-actors aged 19-32 who are dramatically and musically convincing in contrasting modes of theater music by
Kurt Weill and other composers. More than a vocal competition, the
Lotte Lenya Competition is a theater singing competition that emphasizes wide-ranging repertoire and the acting of songs within a dramatic context. (
http://www.kwf.org/kwf/llcs-about )
The
Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. (http://www.kwf.org) is a non-profit, private foundation chartered to preserve and perpetuate the legacies of composer
Kurt Weill (1900-1950) and his wife, actress-singer
Lotte Lenya (1898-1981).
Kurt Weill is well known as the composer of The Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny, Lady in the Dark, Street Scene, and many other innovative works for the theater. Lenya was one of the foremost interpreters of Weill's work, and had a long career in theater and film as a singer and actress. Founded by Lenya in 1962, the
Kurt Weill 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.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
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