Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala Takes Place This Sunday, November 1 at David Geffen Hall; Returns to Live From Lincoln Center on PBS in February
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation holds its 2015 gala – one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season – this Sunday, November 1, at the newly renamed David Geffen Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center. Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award, joins a lineup of opera’s greatest stars, including previous Tucker Award laureates Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Isabel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee, and Stephen Costello; sopranos Angela Gheorghiu and Nadine Sierra; and tenors Piotr Beczala and Andrea Bocelli. Supporting the singers will be members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and New York Choral Society under the leadership of Maestro Eugene Kohn. The concert offers a unique opportunity to hear what the New York Times styled “a dream team of opera singers,” and will be recorded for broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS February 5, 2016 (check local listings).
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.
Tickets for this year’s event range from $40 to $600 and are on sale to the public through Lincoln Center’s website, www.lincolncenter.org, or by calling David Geffen Hall’s box office at (212) 721-6500 or CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500. Prime concert tickets and tickets to the post-concert Gala on the Grand Promenade can be arranged by contacting the Tucker Foundation offices at (212) 757-2218.
High-resolution photos for download are available here.
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Richard Tucker Music Foundation presents:
2015 RICHARD TUCKER GALA
November 1 at 6:30pm
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City
2015 Richard Tucker Award winner Jamie Barton
Winners of Richard Tucker Music Foundation grants and honored guests:
Piotr Beczala, tenor
Andrea Bocelli, tenor
Lawrence Brownlee, tenor (2006 Richard Tucker Award winner)
Stephen Costello, tenor (2009 Richard Tucker Award winner)
Renée Fleming, soprano (1990 Richard Tucker Award winner)
Angela Gheorghiu, soprano
Christine Goerke, soprano (2001 Richard Tucker Award winner)
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano (2013 Richard Tucker Award winner)
Nadine Sierra, soprano (Tucker Career and Study Grant winner)
New York Choral Society
Members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Maestro Eugene Kohn, conductor
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© 21C Media Group, October 2015