George & Nora London Foundation For Singers to Present 54th Annual Competition And Recital
The performance will take place on Friday, February 20, 2026, at 4:00 pm at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Aug. 06, 2025
The 2025-26 season of the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers will present the 54th year of the foundation's prestigious annual competition for young American and Canadian opera singers, and a recital by two winners of the 2025 competition's George London Award: rising stars soprano Shelén Hughes Camacho and baritone Joseph Parrish. The foundation's events will take place at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center.
The George and Nora London Foundation and the George London Award are named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the great opera singers of 20th century, and his wife, Nora, who led the foundation for more than three decades.
The George and Nora London Foundation Competition Final Round is a public event that will take place on Friday, February 20, 2026, at 4:00 pm at which approximately a dozen singers compete for five George London Awards of $12,000 each. Those finalists who do not receive George London Awards receive Encouragement Awards of $2,000. As The New York Times has noted, “this prestigious competition … can rightfully claim to act as a springboard for major careers in opera.” The judges are Harolyn Blackwell, James Morris, Dimitri Pittas, and Susan Quittmeyer, and Gayletha Nichols is the jury chair. John Arida is the event's pianist.
Shelén Hughes Camacho, soprano, and Joseph Parrish, baritone, perform a joint recital on Thursday, April 30, 2026, at 7:30 pm with Amir Farid, piano. These singers, who were two of the five 2025 George London Award winners, will present a program focusing on the lesser-performed gems – arias, songs, and duets – of some of our most beloved composers.
Shelén Hughes Camacho in July made her Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Festival. Of his performance in Juilliard's production of Missy Mazzoli's Proving Up, Parterre Box said, “Joseph Parrish was all silky snarls, his dark eyes at first aglow with sweetness that quickly curdled into something acrid as his monstrous nature was slowly revealed. Parrish displayed a painterly touch on his instrument; the ability to effortlessly slide from laugh to hiss to growl and back to rich singing. … In their climactic final scene, [tenor Andrew] Turner and Parrish were simply riveting.”
Shelén Hughes Camacho sang the “Snow Maiden's Aria” from Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden to win her George London Award. Watch the performance here.
Joseph Parrish sang “A dream wasted” from William Grant Still's Highway 1, USA for his George London Award-winning performance. Watch it here.
George London and the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers
George London
(1920-1985) was one of the greatest opera stars of the 20th century, who blazed a trail for American singers on the international stage and created some of the most indelible interpretations of prominent bass-baritone roles. In his later years, he devoted much of his time and energy to the support and nurturing of young singers, in partnership with his wife, Nora (1924-2022). 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, Dimitri Pittas, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, Dawn Upshaw, and Willard White, to name just a few. As The New York Times noted, “this prestigious competition … can rightfully claim to act as a springboard for major careers in opera.” See the full list of George London Award winners: https://www.georgeandnoralondon.org/competition.html
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