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The Opera Index Winter Gala, hosted by its president Murray
Rosenthal and including guests from opera and the theater,
is the highlight of the non-profit organization’s year of
activities, which since 1984 has boosted the careers of
almost 300 young singers through its annual vocal
competition, among them Eric Owens who was a winner of the
Opera Index Vocal Competition in 1993. He is the second
Opera Index Competition-winner to receive the Distinguished
Achievement Award. The first was Deborah Voigt.
Opera Index
received 261 applications from singers wishing to compete in
its 2012 vocal competition. On October 9 and 10, 78 young
singers took part in preliminary auditions at Hunter
College’s Lang Hall before a panel of distinguished
judges--Ken Benson, Robert Lombardo, Elaine Malbin, Lenore
Rosenberg, CesareSanteramo, Jane Shaulis, Albert Sherman,
and Diana Soviero. In final auditions two days later, 30
remarkable young singers returned to compete for 16 prizes
totaling $50,000.
The January
13 gala program willf eature performances by eight of the
2012Opera Index Vocal Competition awardees. They are
baritone Takaoki Onishi, who won the
top prize of $10,000, baritone Anthony Clark Evans,
who
received $7,500; mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano,
$5,000, tenor Adam Bonanni, $4,000; baritone LuthandoQave,
$3,500; bass-baritone Jeongcheol Cha, $3,000, tenor
Alexander Lewis, $2,500, and soprano Courtney Johnson, who
received a $1,000 Encouragement Grant.
Two
competition winners--soprano Danielle Pastin, who received
$5,000 and bass Matthew Anchel, who received $2,500—are
unable to attend but will perform at a future event.
Also awarded
were six $1000 Encouragement Grants tomezzo-soprano Sarah
Mesko and baritones Jonathan Beyer, Tobias Greenhalgh,
Emmett O’Hanlon, Nickoli Strommer, and Sean Sullivan.
Tickets for the Opera Index Winter Gala range from $350 to
$1,000. More information and tickets are available by phone
at
212-706-9550 or by e-mailing Opera Index at
operaindex@rcn.com
About Eric
Owens
Acclaimed for
his commanding stage presence and inventive artistry,
bass-baritone Eric Owens
has carved a unique place in the opera world as both a
champion of new music and a powerful interpreter of classic
works. Called “consistently charismatic, theatrically and
vocally” by New York Magazine and “absolutely
remarkable” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Owens is
equally at home in concert, recital and opera performances,
bringing his powerful poise, expansive voice and instinctive
acting faculties to stages around the globe. Owens received
great critical acclaim for portraying the title role in the
world premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’sGrendel with
the Los Angeles Opera, and again at the Lincoln Center
Festival, in a production directed and designed by Julie
Taymor. Last season, The New Yorker’s Alex Ross
raved, “Owens’s portrayal [of Alberich in Das Rheingold]
is so richly layered that it may become part of the history
of the work.” Owens also enjoys a close association with
John Adams, and was featured on the September 2008 Nonesuch
Records release of Adams’ A Flowering Tree. He also
originated the role of Leslie Groves in Adams’ Doctor
Atomic. This season Owens reprises his critically
acclaimed portrayal as Alberichin two Ring cycles
at the Metropolitan Opera and tours nationally.
About Opera Index
Opera Index, composed of opera devotees, is an outgrowth of
The New York Opera Club, which was founded in the late
1950’s by William Wells, an opera lover and radio
personality well known for his interviews with opera singers
of the day. Opera Index, its name taken from Mr. Wells’s
file of opera singers, became a formal non-profit
organization in 1982 and two years later inaugurated its
first annual opera competition for singers in the early days
of their careers. Among the prize winners of the first
competition were Suzanne Mentzer and Gary Lakes. Later
winners have included Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Stephanie
Blythe, Andrea Gruber, Michelle DeYoung, Elizabeth Futral,
Christine Goerke, Bejun Mehta, Angela Meade, Eric Owens, and
Anthony Roth Costanzo.
The first recipient of the Opera Index Distinguished
Achievement Award was ZinkaMilanov. Subsequent honorees are
Leonie Rysenik, Samuel Ramey, Roberta Peters, Licia
Albanese, Marilyn Horne,; JamilaNvotna, Alfredo Kraus,
Lucine Amara, Jerome Hines, Birgit Nilsson, Renato Scotto,
Rose Bampton, Theodor Uppman, Anna Moffo, Grace Bumbry,
Martina Arroyo. George Jellinek, Deborah Voigt, Jon Vickers,
Regina Resnik, Sherrill Milnes, James Morris, Catherine
Malfitano, Jessye Norman, AprileMillo, Julius Rudel, Patrice
Munsel, Shirley Verrett, George Shirley, and Eve Queler
For more information and a list of previous competition
award recipients visit
www.operaindexinc.org
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