Susan Graham to Receive Opera Index Award

On Sunday, January 11, Opera Index will present its 36th Distinguished Achievement Award to Susan Graham, one today's foremost opera stars, at its winter gala in the Grand Salon of the JW Marriott Essex House, 160 Central Park South, beginning at 6 p.m. with a reception at the Petit Salon. Presenting Ms. Graham with this year's award will be the revered American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, a previous Distinguished Achievement Award-winner.

The gala evening, attended by guests, many of whom come from the worlds of opera and theater, not only celebrates the remarkable career of Ms. Graham but will also feature performances by seven winners of the 2014 Opera Index Vocal Competition. Since 1984 the competition has boosted the careers of 365 young singers with awards totaling more than $1 million. One of Opera Index's early recipients was Susan Graham in 1987.

Tickets for the Opera Index Winter Gala range from $350 to $1,000. More information and tickets are available by phone at 212-706-9550 or by emailing operaindex@rcn.org

This year 90 singers competed in the preliminary auditions on October 14 and 15 in Lang Hall at Hunter College, and from the 30 finalists, 15 singers won awards. The panel of judges comprised Laura Alley, Ken Benson, Jay Lesinger, Robert Lombardo, Mark Moorman, Lenore Rosenberg, Cesare Santeramo, and Jane Shaulis.

Major awards presented were: $10,000 to bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green; $7,500 to tenors Benjamin Bliss and Andrew Stenson and baritone Joo Won Kang; $3,500 to soprano Hyesang Park; and $3,000 to baritone John Brancy. The Judges Award of $2,500 was presented to soprano Marina Costa-Jackson.

Emerging Artist Awards of $2,000 were given to tenors Michael Brandenburg and César Delgado and to bass-baritone Daniel Noyola, and five Encouragement Awards of $1,000 were given to baritones Michael Adams and Joe Eletto, bass-baritones André Courville and Josh Quinn; and tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson.

Susan Graham-dubbed "America's favorite mezzo" by Gramophone magazine-rose to the highest echelon of international fame within just a few years of her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1991, mastering an astonishing range of repertoire and genres along the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries, from Monteverdi's Poppea to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, a role written especially for her. Ms. Graham won a Grammy Award for her collection of Ives songs, and her recital repertoire is so broad that on her most recent album-Virgins, Vixens & Virago-14 composers from Purcell to Sondheim are represented. Throughout her career, in addition, this distinctly American artist has been recognized as one of the foremost exponents of French vocal music, having won the French government's prestigious "Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur," both for her popularity as a performer in France and in honor of her commitment to French music.

Opera Index, composed of opera devotees, is an outgrowth of The New York Opera Club, founded in the late 1950's by William Wells, an opera lover and radio personality, well known for his interviews with opera singers of the day. Opera Index, its name taken from Mr. Wells's file of opera singers, became a formal non-profit organization in 1982 and two years later inaugurated its first annual opera competition for singers in the early stages of their careers. See a complete list of Opera Index Vocal Competition winners here.

The first recipient of the Opera Index Distinguished Achievement Award was Zinka Milanov followed by Leonie Rysenik, Samuel Ramey, Roberta Peters, Licia Albanese, Marilyn Horne, Jamila Nvotna, Alfredo Kraus, Lucine Amara, Jerome Hines, Birgit Nilsson, Renato Scotto, Rose Bampton, Theodor Uppman, Anna Moffo, Grace Bumbry, Martina Arroyo. George Jellinek, Deborah Voigt, Jon Vickers, Regina Resnik, Sherrill Milnes, James Morris, Catherine Malfitano, Jessye Norman, Aprile Millo, Julius Rudel, Patrice Munsel, Shirley Verrett, George Shirley, Eve Queler, Eric Owens, and most recently, Rosalind Elias. More information about Opera Index, is available at http://operaindexinc.org/

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