The George and Nora London Foundation Competition for American and Canadian opera singers, one of the opera world’s oldest and most prestigious competitions, will hold its 52nd event in 2024, with a public final round at New York’s Morgan Library and Museum on Friday, February 16, 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 six 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 Michael Fennelly before a panel of judges and audience at The Morgan Library & Museum’s Gilder Lehrman 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, and George and Nora London Foundation President John Hauser.
Since 1971, the competition for the George London Awards has given more than 300 honors, and a total of more than $2 million, to an outstanding roster of artists, many of whom have gone on to international stardom – the list of past winners includes Christine Brewer, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Susanna Phillips, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, Richard Stilwell, 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.”
At the 2023 Kennedy Center Honors event, which took place on December 3, honoree Renée Fleming, a 1989 George London Award winner, was paid tribute with a performance of “Song to the Moon” from Dvořák’s Rusalka by opera stars Angel Blue, Julia Bullock, Ailyn Pérez, and Nadine Sierra. Pérez won a George London Award in 2006, and Sierra won hers in 2010. Watch the performance here.
The 2023 George London Award winners were sopranos Erika Baikoff, Amber R. Monroe, and Karoline Podolak; countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen; and tenor Ricardo Garcia.
Rounding out the London Foundation’s season of events at The Morgan, baritone Blake Denson, a 2020 George London Award winner, performs in recital with pianist Kevin Miller on Sunday, April 28, 2024, a program of music by Francesco Santoliquido, Shawn E. Okpebholo, Franz Schubert, and Johannes Brahms.
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. 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. See the full list of George London Award winners: https://www.georgeandnoralondon.org/competition.html
In addition to the annual competition, the George and Nora London Foundation also presents a recital series to give grantees exposure and experience, and, in many cases, a New York recital debut. The foundation also awards scholarships to promising high school students attending the pre-college program of The Juilliard School, a program now in its 12th year.
