Recent Press Coverage



New Talent Meets a Confirmed Master
Anthony Tommasini
Published: New York Times, December 16, 2009

Since 1995 the George London Foundation for Singers has presented an unusual series of voice recitals at the Morgan Library & Museum that pair an emerging singer with an established artist. The contrast was particularly striking for the latest recital in this series on Sunday afternoon.

Marjorie Owens, a 28-year-old American soprano with a big, gleaming voice that suggests that she is a Wagnerian in the making, shared a program with the towering bass-baritone James Morris, an acclaimed Wagner singer. Mr. Morris, who long owned the role of Wagner's Wotan at the Metropolitan Opera, sang it for probably the final time at the Met when the company retired Otto Schenk's production of the "Ring" last spring.

Here was a gifted soprano, a recent winner of a London Foundation award, still exploring the dimensions of her voice, appearing with a major singer whose voice is showing signs of wear but still sounds formidable.

As befitted the Morgan's intimate Gilder Lehrman Hall, the program offered mostly songs, accompanied by the supportive pianist Joshua Greene. That Ms. Owens has such a naturally powerful voice would seem a blessing. Still, learning to control a voice of that size is a challenge.

In three songs from Wagner's "Wesendonck Lieder" and three French songs by Henri Duparc, Ms. Owens sang with a throbbing sound that still came across for the most part with grace and clarity. In Puccini's "Un bel dì vedremo" from "Madama Butterfly," performed as a nod to a Puccini exhibition at the Morgan, Ms. Owens unleashed her voice, which was both thrilling and unsettling. She can send a Puccini phrase soaring with steely power and brightness. But in full-voiced moments her sound turned hard-edged, at times grating.

Showing a different side, she brought dramatic poise and vocal intensity, despite some strident top notes, to "A Letter From Sullivan Ballou," an elegantly understated setting by John Kander (of Kander and Ebb fame) of an actual letter written by an Army major to his wife before he died in the first battle of Bull Run.

These days it is easiest for Mr. Morris to sing with stentorian power and earthy colors, as he did in five Strauss songs he offered. He had some trouble shading phrases with softness and subtlety. Yet, to his artistic credit, he sang several works that called for restraint, from Mozart's "Mentre ti lascio" to three wry, jaunty settings of Edwin Arlington Robinson poems by John Duke. Never once did Mr. Morris cheat. He sang throughout with refinement and integrity, even when his sound turned patchy.

As an encore, Ms. Owens shook the hall with her account of "Dich, teure Halle" from Wagner's "Tannhäuser." Wagner seems in her future, if she can just learn to control and take the edge off her voice.

Then Mr. Morris, as a tribute "to George," he said, meaning George London, sang the monologue with which Wotan leads the gods to Valhalla at the end of "Das Rheingold," a treat for those who thought they might not hear him sing this music again.

[See the full article, with photos, at nytimes.com]


Big Ambition, Small Hall, at Singers' Competition
By Vivien Schweitzer
Published: New York Times, March 22, 2009

Music competitions are often criticized for being unfair or biased and for an unseemly reliance on scorecards. But for better or worse they are still a standard way for young musicians to gain recognition and financial support. One of the most prestigious contests for promising young singers (35 and under) in North America is the George London Foundation Awards Competition, named for a renowned American bass-baritone. Past winners include Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming and Matthew Polenzani.

At the final round of the 38th annual event on Friday afternoon in Gilder Lehrman Hall at the Morgan Library & Museum, 26 young singers performed before a panel of judges that included the soprano Harolyn Blackwell, the mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias and Nora London, George London's widow and the president of the foundation. Earlier in the week the judges heard 100 singers, selected from almost 300 applicants.

The singers, wearing suits and colorful long gowns, ranged from conservatory students to graduates with blossoming professional careers. Gilder Lehrman Hall is a beautifully designed and acoustically warm space but a dangerous place for singers with something to prove. Despite its intimate size, some of the women, evidently determined to show that their voices could potentially fill the Metropolitan Opera House, inflicted eardrum-shattering moments on listeners.

Highlights of the afternoon included an expressive rendition of "Song to the Moon" from "Rusalka" by Amanda Majeski, a soprano; a stellar performance of "Ah, la paterna mano" from "Macbeth" by Sean Panikkar, a tenor; and "Ritorna vincitor" from "Aida" sung with dramatic flair by Yannick-Muriel Noah, a soprano.

They were among the six winners of $10,000 George London Awards. The other three were Arthur Espiritu, a tenor; Marjorie Owens, a soprano; and Heidi Melton, a soprano who won the Kirsten Flagstad Award for a singer with Wagnerian potential.

Eight singers were given George London Foundation Encouragement Awards of $1,000 each, including Jordan Bisch, a bass, for his characterful rendition of "La Calunnia" from "The Barber of Seville"; Layla Claire, a soprano, for a vibrant "Mi tradi" from "Don Giovanni"; and Michael Anthony McGee, a baritone, for an impassioned rendition of "Aleko's Cavatina" from "Aleko."

Other talented singers who didn't win an award were Edward Parks, a baritone; Ginger Costa Jackson, a mezzo-soprano; and Liam Bonner, a baritone. Jonathan Kelly was the able piano accompanist.
[See the full article, with photos, at nytimes.com]

Six Singers Take George London Prizes
By Peter G. Davis
MusicalAmerica.com
March 23, 2009

NEW YORK -- Generous support for young singers continues to abound, despite a recession that has already seen several American opera companies cut back their activities or shut down altogether. That hard fact of life scarcely clouded the George London Foundation's 38th annual awards competition on March 20 at the Morgan Library & Museum's Gilder Lehman Hall, where six singers among the 26 finalists were presented with prizes of $10,000 each and prospects of a hopeful future. After all, previous London award winners include Kathleen Battle, Renée Fleming, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Neil Shicoff, Dawn Upshaw, and Carol Vaness, to name just a few starry names who went on to pursue major careers.

New York is home to at least three prominent foundations that assist and nurture young singers, each named after a famous artist of the past and each with its own style. The Richard Tucker Foundation award, more an anointment than a contest prize since open competitions for the honor ceased some time ago, is given to an important vocal talent already on the verge of international fame, and the announcement is invariably followed by a glamorous concert featuring the winner surrounded by a multitude of operatic luminaries. The Marilyn Horne Foundation conducts its activities more quietly and concentrates on fostering the song repertory rather than opera. Competition winners receive generous grants and recital opportunities, but the foundation gets its primary exposure during a week-long series of concerts and open master classes held each January to celebrate Horne's birthday.

The George London Foundation also sponsors recitals, at the Morgan Library, emphasizing continuity by pairing an established name with a recent award winner. But the annual competition is the big event of the year, an occasion open to the public, which is invited to sit in, listen and judge for itself. This is more or less the format that George London himself devised when he set up the foundation in 1971, not long after his own career was tragically curtailed by a paralyzed vocal cord. The annual competition continues to be conducted with dignity, class and an aura of discovery by London's widow, Nora, whose abiding respect for singers, love of the singing voice and admiration for her husband's incomparable career pervade the whole valuable enterprise.

This year's panel of judges, headed by Mrs. London, included three singers with distinguished careers - Harolyn Blackwell, Rosalind Elias and George Shirley - in addition to opera stage director Bruce Donnell, German broadcast journalist Ernst Ludwig Gausmann (husband of the late Leonie Rysanek) and former Metropolitan Opera administrator Alfred F. Hubay. Not surprisingly, all 26 singers displayed superior vocal quality, and selecting the six winners must have been tough even for this experienced panel. Virtually all of the entrants are already embarked on busy careers -- several in fact have recently appeared in supporting roles at the Metropolitan Opera. It was also interesting to note how fashions change in the audition material that young contestants choose to sing these days. Only three Verdi arias were offered and one selection apiece by Wagner and Puccini, with more emphasis now laid on the less vocally stressful and increasingly popular Handel/Mozart/Rossini repertory. Russian and Czech opera also seems to be gaining favor, but it's a pity that only two contestants elected to sing excerpts from operas written in their own language.

Perhaps it is even more significant that the singers of the Verdi and Wagner selections went on to win, only emphasizing the current scarcity of voices equipped to deal with this still much-performed repertory and how difficult these operas are to cast. All four singers have big, shining instruments as well as an instinctive grasp of the idiom, assets that should take them far when they sing these roles complete: sopranos Yannick-Muriel Noah as Aida, Marjorie Owens as Leonora in "Il Trovatore" and Heidi Melton as Sieglinde in "Die Walküre," and tenor Sean Pattikar as Macduff in "Macbeth." Of course any young voice with the quality, size, amplitude and temperament to tackle such strenuous music will need more time to settle and mature, and sometimes singling them out as competition winners can be an act of faith. There may still be a few rough edges here, but the jury made the right choices. The promise and potential of these four talented singers deserve every encouragement.

The other two London winners could easily step onstage tomorrow and excel. Tenor Arthur Espiritu sang Ferrando's "Un'aura amorosa" from Mozart's "Cos&eigrave; fan tutte" with consummate poise, musical elegance and a polished technique that included some ravishing mezza voce effects. Amanda Majeski made Rusalka's "Song to the Moon" sound even more heartbreakingly beautiful than usual, partly due to the silvery beauty of her soprano but even more to her instinctive feeling for the arching shape of the lyrical line.

My own personal award goes to tenor Dominic Armstrong, who had the initiative to offer "Tarquinius' Ride" from Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia," which he sang with incisively focused tone, superb diction and compelling narrative power. And a special award to the hard-working accompanist, Jonathan Kelly, who had every style at his fingertips along with a gift given to few pianists: a positively psychic ability to follow and give support to any singer, come what may.
[See the full article at MusicalAmerica.com (subscription required)]