2026 George and Nora London Foundation Opera Competition Finals Set For Next Month

The George and Nora London Foundation Competition for American and Canadian opera singers will hold its 54th event in 2026, with a public final round at New York's Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center on Friday, February 20, at 4:00 pm. The finals will also be livestreamed free of charge on the foundation's website and YouTube channel. The event will confer its George London Award of $12,000 upon five singers, and Encouragement Awards of $2,000 upon the remaining finalists.

After three days of semi-finals, a dozen of the best young opera singers from the U.S. and Canada will perform in the final round with pianist John Arida before a panel of judges and audience at Merkin Hall. Each finalist performs one selection, and the winners are announced to the audience immediately after the judges' deliberations.

This year's judges are soprano Harolyn Blackwell; mezzo-soprano Susan Quittmeyer; tenor Dimitri Pittas; bass James Morris; Matthew Horner, Senior Vice President of IMG Artists and London Foundation board member; and Gayletha Nichols, soprano and former Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, who will act as chair.

Since 1971, the foundation's annual competition has given more than 300 awards, and a total of more than $2 million, to an outstanding roster of young American and Canadian opera singers who have gone on to international stardom – the list of past winners includes Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Ryan Speedo Green, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Eric Owens, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, Dawn Upshaw, and Willard White, to name just a few.  

The George and Nora London Foundation will present two winners of the 2025 George London Award in recital: Shelén Hughes Camacho, soprano, and Joseph Parrish, baritone, on Thursday, April 30, 2026, at 7:30 pm with Amir Farid, piano, at Merkin Hall. The singers will present a program focusing on the lesser-performed gems – arias, songs, and duets – of some of our most beloved composers.