George London Foundation to Present Angela Meade & Nicholas Pallesen in Recital Next Month

Soprano Angela Meade is a 2008 George London Award winner who is the youngest singer ever to grace the cover of the annual "Diva" issue of Opera News (November 2014). Baritone Nicholas Pallesen is a 2013 George London Award winner making his New York recital debut. Joined by pianists Danielle Orlando and Craig Rutenberg, they will perform a duo recital on Sunday, January 11, 2015, at 4:30 PM at The Morgan Library & Museum, presented by the George London Foundation for Singers. Both singers were featured in The Audition, the documentary about the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

The George London Foundation Recital Series, which is in its 19th year, presents pairs of outstanding opera singers, many of whom were winners of a George London prize early in their careers or are recent George London Award recipients. The foundation's season of events at The Morgan includes three duo recitals and the annual George London Foundation Awards Competition.

Angela Meade, with Danielle Orlando at the piano, will sing "Non mi dir" from Mozart's Don Giovanni, and songs by Meyerbeer and Strauss. Nicholas Pallesen, with Craig Rutenberg at the piano, will perform Poulenc's Chansons villageoises, "Ha, welche Lust aus schönen Augen" from Marschner's Der Vampyr, and songs by Ives (program details below). The singers will conclude the program with the duet "Tu pur lo sai" from Verdi's I Due Foscari.

Recent Praise for Meade and Pallesen

In a New York Times review of a December 7 performance of Rossini's William Tell with the Teatro Regio Torino at Carnegie Hall, Anthony Tommasini singled out "the glorious soprano Angela Meade," continuing, "Ms. Meade brought her sumptuous, powerful voice to Matilde. ....this was a deeply felt as well as exquisitely sung performance." Later this season, Angela Meade makes her New York Philharmonic debut under Alan Gilbert's direction in Verdi's Requiem (January 15-17). In March/April 2015, with James Levine on the podium, she sings opposite Plácido Domingo in Verdi's Ernani at the Metropolitan Opera, reprising Elvira, the role in which she made her career-making professional debut in 2008.

This past June, Nicholas Pallesen won praise in Terry Gilliam's production of Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini at the English National Opera, London's Daily Express praising him as "a splendid Fieramosca." Of his 2013 performance in the title role of Marschner's Der Vampyr with the New Orleans Opera, the Times-Picayune said, "In the title role, Nicholas Pallesen offers a resounding baritone and a commanding presence." And of his award-winning 2013 George London Foundation competition performance (which can be viewed online via the foundation's Media Library), Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim said in The New York Times, "Nicholas Pallesen, a baritone, combined musicality and a keen dramatic instinct in an aria from Falstaff."

The George London Foundation's 2014-15 season continues with one more recital and the annual competition:

• The 44th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition begins with three days of preliminary auditions and culminates with the final round and award ceremony open to the public. The 2015 competition takes place February 23-27, and the public is invited to attend the competition finals and awards announcement on Friday, February 27, 2015, at 4:00 PM. The 2014 competition winners were Norman Garrett, Cameron McPhail, Marina Harris, Tracy Cox, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Ray Chenez, and Ryan Speedo Green.

• Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor, and Nadine Sierra, soprano, with Bryan Wagorn, piano. Both Mr. Costanzo and Ms. Sierra won their George London Awards in 2010, and they recently collaborated in a staged performance of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater at the 2013 Glimmerglass festival. Sunday, March 22, 2015, at 4:30 PM.

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