Nicholas Pallesen, winner of the 2013 George London Award, will be making his New York recital debut on Sunday, January 11, 2015 at the Morgan Library &
Museum. He'll share the stage with soprano Angela Meade, who won the award in 2008.
Joined by accompanist Craig Rutenberg, Pallesen will perform Poulenc's Chansons
villageoises, "Ha, welche Lust aus schönen Augen" from Marschner's Der
Vampyr, and songs by Charles Ives. Pallesen performed the entire Der
Vampyr with the Der
Vampyr with the New Orleans Opera in 2013. He will join Meade for the duet "Tu pur lo sai" from Verdi's early opera I Due
Foscari.
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.
This year's competition will be held on Friday, February 27, 2015, at 4:00 PM. Last year's winners included three singers familiar to our readers, Norman Garrett, Cameron McPhail and Ryan Speedo Green.
Time is running out to order your 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar, filled with 19 of the sexiest men in opera. Order yours today by clicking on the LULU button now.
Barihunks Nicholas Pallesen and Ildar Abdrazakov will be part of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual gala n Sunday, October 12 at Avery Fisher Hall. Other performers include Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Marcello Giordani, Zeljko Lucić, and previous Tucker Award laureates Angela Meade, Isabel
Leonard, and Stephen Costello. The singers will perform arias and
ensembles led by Emmanuel Villaume, Music Director of the Dallas Opera.
Founded in 1975, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation is a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to perpetuating the artistic legacy of the great Brooklyn-born tenor by nurturing the careers of talented young American opera singers. It also offers free performances in the New York metropolitan area and supports music education enrichment programs. Each year, the Foundation confers its most prestigious prize, the Richard Tucker Award, on an artist poised at the edge of a major international career. The award comes with a $50,000 cash prize as well as the ongoing support of the Tucker family and Foundation.
Tickets for this year’s event range from $40 to $600 and are on sale to the public through the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s website. Reservations for the gala dinner can be arranged by contacting the Tucker Foundation offices at (212) 757-2218.
Further information about the 2014 gala and the work of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation is available at www.richardtucker.org.
The 42nd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition was held Friday night and baritones took two of the top prized and three of the encouragement awards. Nicholas Pallesen and Jamez McCorkle both were awarded the top prize which comes with a $10,000 financial gift. Encouragement awards went to John Brancy, who received the Theodor Uppman memorial award; Steven LaBrie won the Herbert J. Frank memorial award; and, a final baritone winner was Jonathan Michie. Aubrey Allicock, who has been featured on this site along with Pallesen, Brancy and LaBrie, was awarded an Honorable Mention.
The competition took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. A total of $82,000 was given in awards. After three days of preliminary auditions during which ninety singers were heard, 24 were selected as finalists. Of these, seven were selected as winners of George London Awards of $10,000 each and seven were given George London Foundation Encouragement Awards of $1,000 each. The remaining 10 finalists received $500 Honorable Mention awards.
Theodor Uppman as Billy Budd in 1951
Other winners of the $10,000 top prize included tenor Dominic Armstrong, tenor Noah Baetge, soprano Felicia Moore, soprano Jessica Muirhead, and Additional $1,000 encouragement awards went to tenor Adam Bonanni, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb, soprano Marina Costa - Jackson, and mezzo-soprano Shirin Eskandani.
This year’s panel of judges included soprano Harolyn Blackwell, mezzo-soprano Nedda Casei, opera stage director Bruce Donnell, former Metropolitan Opera administrator Alfred F. Hubay, George London Foundation President Nora London, former Metropolitan Opera leading tenor and current voice professor George Shirley, and performing arts consultant Thurmond Smithgall.
Since 1971, the annual competition of The George London Foundation for Singers has been giving its George London 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 Christine Brewer, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, and Dawn Upshaw.
New York's Collegiate Chorale announced that it has joined forces with the American Symphony Orchestra to perform Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 6pm at Carnegie Hall.
Barihunk Nicholas Pallesen will sing Filippo, who has one of the great baritone bel canto arias, "O divina Agnese!...Forse gi? disposti i modi." In fact, like many Bellini operas, it's rich with beautiful baritone melodies, including a stunning duet with the soprano. Pallesen will be joined by soprano sensation Angela Meade as Beatrice di Tenda, mezzo Jamie Barton as Agnese and tenor Michael Spyres as Orombello. The chorus plays a key role in this opera, and in the true tradition of classical Greek dramas, they not only comment on the action, but advise and comfort the protagonists.
Joan Sutherland & Enzo Sordello sing the Act I duet "Tu qui, Filippo?":
The opera was was rarely performed after its premiere in 1833, but was revived in 1961 by the American Opera Society with Joan Sutherland, Enzo Sordello, Marilyn Horne and Richard Cassilly under the baton of Nicola Rescigno. Later that year it was performed at La Scala with Sutherland and Raina Kabaivanska under the baton of Antonino Votto. Since then the title role has been assumed by a number of other prominent sopranos: Leyla Gencer, Mirella Freni, June Anderson, Cecilia Gasdia, Edita Gruberová and Mariella Devia.
Set in 15th century Milan and based on a historical figure, the opera tells of the tormented but saintly wife of the Duke of Milan, falsely accused of adultery by the scorned lover of one of her admirers and sentenced to death by her husband. Beatrice di Tenda is characterized by ravishing melodies and exciting finales.
Roberto Frontali sings "O divina Agnese!...Forse gi? disposti i modi" from Beatrice di Tenda:
A native of Riverside, California, Nicholas Pallesen is establishing himself as one of the most promising talents of his generation. He is a 2012 recipient of a Richard Tucker Career Grant, was a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and can be seen in the documentary, "The Audition." Pallesen’s performance in Beatrice di Tenda will mark his Carnegie Hall debut. He will also make two title-role debuts: as Lord Ruthven in Marschner's Der Vampyr with the American Symphony Orchestra and in Rigoletto with Shreveport Opera. He will return to the Metropolitan Opera’s roster for Ades’ The Tempest. Future engagements include debuts with the Metropolitan, Fort Worth and Cincinnati Operas, all in leading roles. Mr. Pallesen is a winner of the Giulio Gari, Sullivan Foundation, Opera Index and the Bel Canto Foundation competitions. He has also won awards from the George London Foundation, the Loren L. Zachary Society, the Liederkranz Foundation, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation and the Santa Fe Opera, among others.
Singers like Nicholas Pallesen and Angela Meade have succeeded because of their successful training in young artist programs. You can help support these programs and enjoy a year of hunky baritones on your wall by purchasing our 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar. Buy now before the holiday rush:
