Barihunks Lawson Anderson and Benjamin Taylor win George London top honors

Benjamin Taylor and Lawson Anderson

Barihunks Lawson Anderson and Benjamin Taylor shared top honors at the 2018 George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers. The two singers will receive $10,000 each, along with fellow winners Raehann Bryce-Davis, Rihab Chaieb, Emily D'Angelo and Lauren Margison.

The George London Foundation and George London Awards are named for the great American bass-baritone (1920-1985), who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young singers. The announcement of the winners was made by George London's widow, Nora London.

The George London Foundation's 2017-18 season concludes with a duo recital featuring past winners Heidi Melton and Kyle van Schoonhoven on March 4th at The Morgan Library & Museum.

Benjamin Taylor and Lawson Anderson

Lawson Anderson can next be seen as Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio on March 16th and 18th with the Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional de México.

Benjamin Taylor is a first-year Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist, where is scheduled to perform Sciarrone in Puccini's Tosca, Brian in Jeremy Howard Beck's The Long Walk, and Captain Gardiner in Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick.

North Carolina Opera announces barihunky new season

A well-dressed Soloman Howard and an undressed Troy Cook in Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias

North Carolina Opera has announced their new season and it includes some of our favorite singers. Anytime an opera company produces Puccini's La boheme, odds are that at least one of the three baritones will be a barihunk. The company has not announced their Schaunard, but we're thrilled that Troy Cook will appear as Marcello and Soloman Howard as Colline. Cook, you may recall is one of six singers who have appears on this site in the "full monty." Performances are on January 24 & 26, 2014.

Sidney Outlaw

Mozart's Così fan tutte will feature the ridiculously talented and brilliant Sydney Outlaw as Guglielmo. You can see the Brevard, North Carolina native in performances on October 3, 5 & 6, 2013. Fans in New York can catch him on November 4th at Carnegie Hall performing Mendelssohn's Walpurgisnacht & Mozart Requiem. He'll also be making his debut with the Atlanta Opera next year as Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Their final offering is Antonín Dvorák's magical opera Rusalka. Although this isn't a barihunk vehicle, it does include two rising soprano talents who you won't want to miss: future Wagnerian mega-star Heidi Melton and Joyce El-Khoury. There is one performance scheduled on March 14, 2014.

North Carolina Opera was formed in 2010 from the merger of Capital Opera Raleigh and The Opera Company of North Carolina. Visit their website for tickets and additional cast information.