LOTTE LENYA COMPETITION Celebrates 25th Anniversary, April 29

A gathering of stars and notables from the Broadway world will join together on Saturday 29 April to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Lotte Lenya Competition, the internationally renowned theatrical singing contest.

For this celebration year, the Competition returns to its original home at Kilbourn Hall in Rochester, New York. Prizes totaling more than $120,000, including a top prize of $25,000, will be bestowed on the best and brightest among twelve exceptional singing actor finalists.

Included on the jury for the afternoon final round will be 2010 Lenya Competition prizewinner Kyle Scatliffe, currently appearing in Hamilton on Broadway as Marquis de Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson, and Ted Chapin, longtime President and CEO of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and co-founder of the Encores! series at City Center. The two other eminent judges come from the world of opera: Dame Josephine Barstow CBE, DBE, long recognized as one of the world's leading singing actresses; and James Holmes, who has a brilliant track record as a conductor of classic American musical theater in opera settings.

In the evening, Broadway and Off-Broadway veteran Erik Liberman will host a Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Gala Concert featuring a galaxy of eleven former award winners in the Competition including Amy Justman, Andrew Polec, Richard Todd Abrams, John Brancy, and Justin Hopkins. More information, performance programs, and bios for all the performers are available on the Kurt Weill Foundation website.

Other free weekend events include panels featuring winners, judges, and other key participants from past years, plus a performance by Eastman School of Music students of scenes from Kurt Weill's stage works. On extended display will be exhibits of Lenya Competition highlights as well as Weill's manuscripts, which have been housed at the Sibley Music Library since 1998, when the first Competition celebrated their arrival.

All events will stream live online at www.kwf.org.