Kurt Weill Foundation and Lotte Lenya Competition Establish the 'Rebecca Luker Award'

Kim Kowalke, president of the Kurt Weill Foundation and founder of the Lotte Lenya Competition, has announced that the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to establish an annual "Rebecca Luker Award" for an outstanding performance of a selection from the Golden Age of American musical theater by a finalist in the Lotte Lenya Competition.

The following statement was released via the Kurt Weill Foundation website:

"Luker's career as an ingenue centered on this repertory, which she performed definitively and seemingly effortlessly. Her recordings remain a model and a standard for contestants in the Lotte Lenya Competition. The courage and commitment she demonstrated in adjudicating last year's semifinals from her wheelchair was an inspiration for the thirteen singers who were fortunate to experience Rebecca's warmth, wisdom, kindness, and radiance while she was already struggling with the ravages of ALS. Sitting next to Rebecca as she adjudicated and coached on six occasions was a privilege and profound tutelage I will treasure always."

Luker served as a judge of the final round of the Lotte Lenya Competition and the semifinal round three times each, including the 2020 semifinals, which took place after she had been diagnosed with ALS. Luker, one of Broadway's brightest stars, passed away after being diagnosed with ALS in December of 2020.

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