Contestants represent seven countries on four continents.
Rob Berman, Catherine Malfitano, and Alison Moritz
to serve as final round judges.
Finals event in Rochester, New York on 3 May to feature
Audience Choice Award for the first time.
NEW YORK (18 March 2024) — The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music has named the eleven exceptional singing actors who will compete for a top prize of $25,000 in the final round of the twenty-seventh annual Lotte Lenya Competition, the internationally renowned theatrical singing contest. The finals are set to take place Saturday, 3 May at Kilbourn Hall in Rochester, New York. Kim Kowalke, President of the Kurt Weill Foundation and Founder of the Competition, said of the finalists: “This year’s eleven finalists are the most diverse and geographically dispersed group in the Competition’s history. And they will be singing a remarkably wide range of repertoire, from Patience to I Puritani, Subways Are for Sleeping to Ernani.”
With its focus on both acting and vocal skills, the Lenya Competition celebrates talented singing actors of all nationalities who can “do it all” across the dynamic landscape of music theater. The eleven finalists emerged from a group of twenty semifinalists who had been previously selected from an initial pool of 260 applicants—thirty percent of whom came from outside the US. The Competition’s semifinal round features a unique judging-coaching format. Semifinalists audition in person in New York City, performing a continuous fifteen-minute program of four contrasting numbers, including one by Kurt Weill, then receive immediate feedback and coaching from one of the two semifinal judges. This year’s coach-adjudicators were double Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori and Broadway and opera leading lady Lisa Vroman. All semifinalists receive a $1250 cash prize.
Ranging in age from 25 to 32, the Finalists in the 2025 Lenya Competition are:
Tamara Bounazou (Paris, France)
Crystal Glenn (Yonkers, NY)
Jonathan Heller (New York, NY)
Queen Hezumuryango (Bujumbura, Burundi)
Elenora Hu (Delft, Netherlands)
Olivia LaPointe (Fredericton, NB)
Rebecca Madeira (Howell, NJ)
Gemma Nha (Sydney, Australia)
George Robarts (Great Hormead, UK)
Schyler Vargas (Denver, CO)
Ian Williams (Indianapolis, IN)
The final round will be judged by three esteemed artists whose careers mirror the values of the Competition: Broadway conductor and music director Rob Berman, multi-hyphenate singer-actor-director-teacher Catherine Malfitano, and stage director Alison Moritz. Emmy and Grammy Award winner Berman served for fifteen years as music director of Encores!, New York City Center’s acclaimed series of great American musicals in concert. He music directs the Encores! revival of Kurt Weill’s Love Life, premiering 26 March. Among Malfitano’s more than 1400 performances, seen at all major opera houses of the world and on television, are frequent Jenny’s in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny as well as both Rose and Anna Maurrant in Street Scene. Moritz, recently appointed as the Artistic Director of Central City Opera, was a Hal Prince/Kurt Weill Directing Fellow for the 2016 production of Weill’s Lost in the Stars at Washington National Opera.
Final round events will be available for streaming live online and on demand afterwards at www.kwf.org. Contestants compete for top prizes of $25,000, $20,000, and $15,000 as well as discretionary prizes at the $6000 level. For the first time, the Lenya Competition will incorporate an Audience Choice Award. After presenting their competition programs in the afternoon, finalists will perform an additional crowd-pleaser in the evening. Audience members in the hall and those tuning in to the live stream will both be able to vote for their favorite. The artist receiving the most votes will be awarded a prize of $3000.
