Winners Announced For 45th Annual Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition Finals Concert

The Oratorio Society of New York has announced the winners of its 45th Annual Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition Finals held on Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 1:30pm at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Eight emerging classical singers, selected from a pool of semifinalists, performed major oratorio arias with piano accompaniment. The Solo Competition was inaugurated in 1977 to encourage the art of oratorio singing and to give young singers an opportunity to advance their careers.

Julie Roset received the Holly McCracken Award, earning First Place in the competition and a $7,000 cash prize. Eric Carey received the Meyerson/Zwanger Award, earning Second Place and a $5,000 prize, and William Socolof received the Janet Plucknett Award, earning Third Place and a $3,000 prize.

Additionally, Morgan Balfour received the Esther Korshin Award (Fourth Place, $2,500 prize); Joseph Parrish received the Watson Family Award (Fifth Place, $1,500 prize); Sophie Michaux received the William Grogan Award (Sixth Place, $1,000 prize); Bradyn Debysingh received the Robert and Winifred Connelly Green Award (Seventh Place, $1,000) and Bryan Murray received the Jody Spellun Award (Eighth Place, $1,000).

Competition Finals judges included Oratorio Society Music Director Kent Tritle, Ryan Brandau (Artistic Director of Amor Artis, Princeton Pro Musica, and Monmouth Civic Chorus), Hanako Yamaguchi (former Director of Music Programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts), Mark Shapiro (six-time ASCAP Award Winner), and Sidney Outlaw (GRAMMY-nominated baritone).

OSNY's 2021-22 season concludes with Mendelssohn's Elijah on May 9, 2022 at 8:00pm in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, featuring Susanna Phillips, Lucia Bradford, Isaiah Bell, Justin Austin, and Zachary Whalen.

About the Oratorio Society of New York
The Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) is one of the oldest musical organizations in the United States and has become New York City's standard for grand choral performance. Founded in 1873 by Leopold Damrosch, the Society has played an integral role in the musical life of the city. In its early years, the Society established a fund to finance the building of a new concert hall, a cause taken up in earnest by the Society's fifth president, Andrew Carnegie. In 1891, and under the direction of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the Society helped inaugurate this new Music Hall, which would be renamed Carnegie Hall several years later.

The Society continues to perform several times each season at Carnegie Hall. Its annual performances of Handel's Messiah, a tradition unbroken since 1874, have become a holiday favorite with New York audiences. In addition to its collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and New York City Ballet, as well as other performing arts institutions, the Society performs internationally every few years - including recent concerts in Japan, Uruguay, Germany, Italy, and Brazil.

The Society is also committed to commissioning and championing new works, including most recently Pulitzer prize-winning composer, Paul Moravec and Grammy Award-winning librettist, Mark Campbell's Grammy nominated recording Sanctuary Road, available from Naxos Records.

The OSNY membership consists of avocational and professionally trained singers as well as non-singing members. Auditions are held twice annually at the beginning of the fall and winter terms. OSNY is a not-for-profit 501c3 corporation governed by a volunteer board of directors with a professional music staff.

About Kent Tritle

Kent Tritle is one of America's leading choral conductors. In addition to being Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, he is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and Music Director of Musica Sacra, New York's longest continuously performing professional chorus.

In addition, Kent is Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music and is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School. An acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is also the organist of the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra, and Chair of the Organ Department of the Manhattan School of Music.

Called "the brightest star in New York's choral music world" by The New York Times, Kent Tritle founded the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series at New York's Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, and led it to great acclaim from 1989 to 2011. From 1996 to 2004, he was Music Director of New York's The Dessoff Choirs. He hosted "The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle," a weekly program on New York's WQXR, from 2010 to 2014. Kent Tritle has made more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels. www.kenttritle.com

Photo credit: Tim Dwight