Oratorio Society of New York Presents The 36th Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition Finals, 4/14

Since 1977, the Oratorio Society of New York, the city's standard for grand, joyous choral performance, has held the only major vocal competition devoted to solo oratorio singing. Named after the OSNY music director from 1973 to 2005, the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition each year draws more than 100 applicants from around the world.

On Saturday, April 14, 2012, at 1:30 PM, the competition's final round takes place as a public event. Eight finalists, culled from 24 semifinalists (of 110 applicants), will each sing two selections from the oratorio repertoire. The judges will deliberate immediately afterward, and the awards will be announced to the audience.

The Ruth Lopin Nash Award for First Place: $7,000
The Stanley C. Meyerson Award for Second Place: $5,000
The Docia Goodwin Franklin Award for Third Place: $2,500
The Frances MacEachron Prize for Fourth Place: $1,500

The remaining finalists will each receive $500 each.

The 2012 jury includes conductor and Collegiate Choral Music Director James Bagwell, former Metropolitan Opera administrator Alfred Hubay, conductor and Berkshire Choral Festival Director Frank Nemhauser, conductor and Stonewall Choral Artistic Director Cynthia Powell, and conductor and Oratorio Society of New York Music Director Kent Tritle. The pianist for the competition is Linda Hall.

The Oratorio Society of New York created the competition to encourage the art of oratorio singing and to give talented young singers an opportunity to advance their careers. The Solo Competition has long been international in scope, and is well known in the music world – since its inception, more than 3,400 singers have competed and more than 100 winners chosen. In addition, over 65 performance contracts have been awarded to Competition winners to appear in concert with the OSNY; many have also been awarded contracts with other major musical organizations.

The Solo Competition was renamed in 2006 in honor of Lyndon Woodside, the Society's late director. Previous winners include Jennifer Check, Michelle DeYoung, Tyler Duncan, Lauren Flanigan, Carl Halvorson, and Eric Owens.

OSNY 139th Season Concludes with World Premiere of Filas's Song of Solomon
After what The New York Times described as "a vibrant performance" of the Mozart arrangement of Handel's Messiah in December, the Oratorio Society of New York returns to Carnegie Hall on Thursday, April 26, 2012, for the concluding concert of its 139th season: a program of Czech music featuring the world premiere of an OSNY commission, Song of Solomon by Juraj Filas, and Kent Tritle's first performance of Dvo?ák's Stabat mater. The program's soloists include Rachel Rosales, soprano; Charlotte Paulsen, mezzo-soprano; John Bellemer, tenor; and Ben Wager, bass. The program is presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall as part of its 120th Anniversary Celebration.

Juraj Filas, born in 1955 in the Slovak Republic, is one of the most prominent composers of the Czech Republic, where he has lived and worked for the past 35 years. Also a singer who has won several vocal competitions, Filas writes music that has been described as belonging to the Czech neo-Romantic movement. "Juraj's musical language draws from the music of Janá?ek and folk idioms from the Austro-Hungarian region, creating a voice that is both romantic and lyrical but also completely of our time," Kent Tritle says.

Oratorio Society of New York
"The Oratorio Society has held the line for choral grandeur," said The New York Times of the Society's performance of Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall in 2008. Since its founding in 1873, during which time many thousands of singers have passed through its membership, the OSNY, New York's own 200-voice volunteer chorus, has become the city's standard for grand, joyous choral performance. Since 2005 the chorus has been led by Music Director Kent Tritle, called "New York City's foremost choral conductor" by Time Out New York, who was recently appointed Director of Cathedral Music and Organist for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. "The sheer energy of the society's sound had an enveloping fervor," wrote Allan Kozinn in The New York Times of a 2008 presentation of Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem; and of a 2005 performance of Messiah, Jeremy Eichler said in the Times, "this was...a vibrant and deeply human performance, made exciting by the sheer heft and depth of the chorus's sound."

The Oratorio Society of New York has the longest continuous relationship of any musical organization with Carnegie Hall, which this season celebrates its 120th anniversary. The Society was onstage at the hall's opening night concert on May 5, 1891, and a few days later performed the U.S. premieres of Tchaikovsky's Legend and Pater noster conducted by the composer. The Society was central to the inception and building of the hall. (Andrew Carnegie was a member of the board of directors, serving as its president from 1888 to 1919.)

For more information, visit www.oratoriosocietyofny.org.