George London Foundation Presents Anthony Dean Griffey & Emalie Savoy at The Morgan, 1/13

Anthony Dean Griffey, a tenor internationally renowned for his portray of the title role of Britten's Peter Grimes, and Emalie Savoy, a 2011 George London Award winner who is one of New York's fastest rising young sopranos, perform the second George London Foundation Recital of the season with pianist Ken Noda on Sunday, January 13, 2013, at 4:30 PM at The Morgan Library & Museum. The George London Foundation Recital Series presents pairs of outstanding opera singers, many of whom were winners of a George London prize early in their careers or are recent George London Award recipients.

Mr. Griffey will sing songs by Dowland and Barber, lieder by Schubert and Strauss, and Jimmy's aria from Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. MS. Savoy will sing Poulenc's song cycle Banalités, Mozart's "Bella mia fiamma," and "Le perfide Renaud me fuit" from Gluck's Armide. They will conclude the program with Gershwin's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off."

Mr. Griffey replaced the originally-announcEd Matthew Polenzani, who has had to withdraw because of a scheduling conflict. He will perform on the series on October 20, 2013.

This season Anthony Dean Griffey sings the role of Mitch in André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire with Renée Fleming both at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the spring, and at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's as part of Ms. Fleming's Perspectives series. He began the season performing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink. Emalie Savoy elicited critical accolades in 2012, The New York Times calling her "a splendid young soprano" for her performance in a New York Philharmonic performance of Falla's cantata Atlántida, and this for her performance in the joint Juilliard School/Metropolitan Opera production of Mozart's Così fan tutte,: "The soprano Emalie Savoy brings a luminous and touching vulnerability to Fiordiligi."

The 2012-13 Season Continues
The Foundation's 2012-13 season continues with a public master class, the annual George London Foundation Awards Competition, and a concluding recital:

Deborah Polaski, one of the world's great dramatic sopranos, won a George London Award in 1976, and was coached by George London in the Early Stages of her career, about which she has said, "I can't imagine anyone more inspiring." She will coach five undergraduate and graduate students of the Manhattan School of Music in songs of Brahms, Strauss, and Wagner in a public master class to take place at Greenfield Hall at the Manhattan School of Music on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, at 4:00 PM.

The 42nd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition begins with three days of preliminary auditions and culminates with the final round and award ceremony open to the public. The 2013 competition takes place February 25-March 1, and the public is invited to attend the competition finals and awards announcement on Friday, March 1, 2013, at 4:00 PM.

Susanna Phillips, soprano, and Joseph Kaiser, tenor, with Myra Huang, piano, on Sunday, May 5, 2013, at 4:30 PM. Ms. Phillips is a 2005 George London Award winner, and Mr. Kaiser won a George London Encouragement Award in 2000 as a baritone, and another Encouragement Award in 2005 as a tenor.

Four-time Grammy Award winning American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has captured critical and popular acclaim on opera, concert and recital stages around the world. Celebrated for his powerful portrayal of the title role of Britten's Peter Grimes, Griffey first performed the role at Tanglewood in 1996 under the baton of Seiji Ozawa. The role has subsequently brought him international acclaim, and his performance in Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera was broadcast live in HD to movie theatres across the world, featured on PBS and released on DVD (EMI Classics). Opera News praised Mr. Griffey's performance at the Houston Grand Opera, saying "Griffey's large, lumbering physical presence commanded the stage, but it was his vocal artistry that sealed a remarkable performance." And Anthony Tommasini said, "... as I think back [on the Metropolitan Opera 2007-2008 season], it is individual performances by singers that stay with me, none more so than the tenor Anthony Dean Griffey's portrayal of the title role in the Met's new production of Britten's 'Peter Grimes.' Singing with exemplary artistry and raw emotion, Mr. Griffey found his own way into the daunting role of Grimes, fully conveying that reclusive fisherman's instability and violent streak while revealing the wounded child within. This was an overdue personal triumph for a selfless artist who rose through the ranks of the Met and had been underused until now." www.anthonydeangriffey.com

Albany, New York, native Emalie Savoy (www.savoymusic.net, 2011 George London Award), the recipient of the 2012 Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award for promising young classical artists, made her Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2011-12 season as Kristina in Leoš Janá?ek's The Makropulos Case, and sang the title role in Gluck's Armide in a joint Metropolitan Opera-Juilliard production about which Anthony Tommasini said in The New York Times, "the gifted soprano Emalie Savoy sang with plush sound, fiery temperament and cool elegance." MS. Savoy recently debuted with the New York Philharmonic in Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Alan Gilbert. Other recent highlights include the title role in Satie's Socrate with James Levine conducting the MET Chamber Ensemble in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall; a collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, dancer Damian Woetzel, and the Silk Road Ensemble in Alice Tully Hall as part of The World Science Festival and on the SummerStage concert series in Central Park; and performances in Mendelssohn's Elijah and Mendelssohn's Paulus, led by Kent Tritle with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall.

The Legacy of George London
The goal of the George London Foundation, the support and nurturing of young singers, was an abiding interest of the great American bass-baritone George London, who devoted a great part of the time and energy of his later years to this purpose. "Remembering his difficult road to success, George wanted to devise a way to make the road a little easier for future generations of singers," said George London Foundation President Nora London. Initially created under the auspices of the National Opera Institute, the George London Awards program has been administered since 1990 directly by the Foundation as a living legacy to George London's own exceptional talent and generosity. www.georgelondon.org