George And Nora London Foundation Competition For Opera Singers Returns In February

The George and Nora London Foundation Competition for American and Canadian opera singers, one of the opera world's oldest and most prestigious competitions, will hold its 53rd event in 2025, with a public final round at New York's Morgan Library and Museum on Friday, February 21, at 4:00 pm.

The finals will also be livestreamed free of charge on the foundation's website and YouTube channel. The event will confer its George London Award of $12,000 upon six singers, and Encouragement Awards of $2,000 upon the remaining finalists.

After three days of semi-finals, a dozen of the best young opera singers from the U.S. and Canada will perform in the final round with pianist Lachlan Glen before a panel of judges and audience at The Morgan Library & Museum's Gilder Lehrman Hall. Each finalist performs one selection, and the winners are announced to the audience immediately after the judges' deliberations.

This year's judges are soprano Harolyn Blackwell, mezzo-soprano Susan Quittmeyer, tenor Dimitri Pittas, bass James Morris, and Gayletha Nichols, soprano and former Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, who will act as chair.

Since 1971, the foundation's annual competition has given more than 300 awards, and a total of more than $2 million, to an outstanding roster of young American and Canadian opera singers who have gone on to international stardom – the list of past winners includes Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Ryan Speedo Green, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Eric Owens, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, Dawn Upshaw, and Willard White, to name just a few.  As The New York Times noted, “this prestigious competition … can rightfully claim to act as a springboard for major careers in opera.”

The Foundation's First Commission: A Song Cycle Based on Nora London's WWII Diary, with Music by Jake Heggie and Text by Gene Scheer

To mark the 30th anniversary of its annual recital series by George London Award winners, the London Foundation has made its first commission of a composition: a song cycle by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer based upon the WWII diaries of Nora London, telling the dramatic story of her family's escape from France to America when she was 16 years old. The work's world premiere will be performed by mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, a 2022 George London Award winner, at a recital presented by the London Foundation on April 6, 2025, at The Morgan, at which Ms. Moore will also perform music by Rossini, Strozzi, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev with pianist Francesco Barfoed.

Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer have worked together frequently in both opera and song; among their collaborations are the operas Moby-Dick, It's a Wonderful Life, Intelligence, and, last year, Before It All Goes Dark; and a song cycle Camille Claudel: Into the fire, premiered by Joyce di Donato and the Alexander String Quartet.

George London and the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers

George London (1920-1985) was one of the greatest opera stars of the 20th century, who blazed a trail for American singers on the international stage and created some of the most indelible interpretations of prominent bass-baritone roles. In his later years, he devoted much of his time and energy to the support and nurturing of young singers, in partnership with his wife, Nora. See the full list of George London Award winners: https://www.georgeandnoralondon.org/competition.html

In addition to the annual competition, the George and Nora London Foundation also presents a recital series to give grantees exposure and experience, and, in many cases, a New York recital debut. The foundation also awards scholarships to promising high school students attending the pre-college program of The Juilliard School, a program now in its 12th year.

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