2016 Richard Tucker Opera Gala 'FROM BOCELLI TO BARTON' Airs Tonight on PBS as Part of Live From Lincoln Center

LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER - the multiple Emmy Award-winning performing arts series that for more than 40 years has showcased the best of the wide-ranging programming from the world's leading performing arts center - will broadcast the opera world's most highly anticipated event of the season tonight, February 5, 2016.

The annual Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala concert features some of opera's biggest stars, including Andrea Bocelli, Renée Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Isabel Leonard, Christine Goerke, Lawrence Brownlee, Stephen Costello, Nadine Sierra, and Piotr Bezcala, along with this year's Richard Tucker Award winner, Jamie Barton. Supporting the singers will be members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and New York Choral society under the baton of Eugene Kohn.

Live From Lincoln Center's "From Bocelli to Barton: The Richard Tucker Opera Gala" will air tonight, February 5, 2016, at 9:00 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), and will be hosted by Audra McDonald.

Founded in 1975, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation is a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to perpetuating the artistic legacy of the great Brooklyn-born tenor by nurturing the careers of talented young American opera singers. Through awards, grants for study, performance opportunities, and other activities, the Foundation provides professional development for singers at various stages of their careers. It also offers free performances in the New York metropolitan area and supports music education enrichment programs. Each year, the Foundation confers its most prestigious prize, the Richard Tucker Award, on an artist poised at the edge of a major international career. Often referred to as the "Heisman Trophy of Opera," the award comes with a $50,000 cash prize as well as the ongoing support of the Tucker family and Foundation.

American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, who takes the stage at the gala as winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award, has been praised by the New Yorker as "a fresh wonder of the opera world, possessing a voice of preternatural beauty and power." Besides taking both Main and Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, she is a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a Grammy nominee, a 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant winner, and recipient of the KENNEDY Center's 2014 Marian Anderson Award.

This episode of LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER was taped at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall on November 1, 2015. It is directed for television by Emmy Award-winner Annette Jolles, who also directed last year's presentation of the Richard Tucker Opera Gala broadcast. Andrew C. Wilk is the executive producer of the LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER series.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 15 series, festivals, and programs including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants, Free Thursdays at the David Rubenstein Atrium, Great Performers, Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Martin E. Segal Awards, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, and the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In addition, LCPA led a series of major capital projects, now complete, on behalf of the resident organizations across the campus. For more information, visit lincolncenter.org or aboutlincolncenter.org.

LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER is a cornerstone of performing arts broadcasting, presenting the world's greatest artists and performances in music, dance, and theater from Lincoln Center, the world's leading performing arts center. Now in its 41st season on PBS, the pioneering series-produced by Lincoln Center-has been seen by hundreds of millions of viewers since its debut and celebrated by 14 Emmy Awards and other honors for its broadcasting excellence. It recently won an Emmy Award for Best Outstanding Class Program for its 2014 broadcast of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street featuring Bryn Terfel, Emma Thompson and the New York Philharmonic. Additional LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER content, including past episodes and excerpts, is accessible online at PBS.org.

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