Richard Tucker Music Foundation Presents Annual Gala at NYC’s Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday, Oct 12
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation holds its annual gala, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, on Sunday, October 12 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center. Tenor Michael Fabiano, winner of the 2014 Richard Tucker Award, joins a lineup of opera’s greatest stars – including Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Marcello Giordani, Zeljko Lucić, Ildar Abdrazakov, and previous Tucker Award laureates Angela Meade, Isabel Leonard, and Stephen Costello – in a program of favorite arias and ensembles led by Emmanuel Villaume, Music Director of the Dallas Opera. Like last year’s gala, which celebrated the centennial of legendary tenor Richard Tucker, the concert offers a unique opportunity to hear what the New York Times styled “a dream team of opera singers,” and will be recorded for later broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS.
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. Through awards, grants for study, performance opportunities, and other activities, the Foundation provides professional development for singers at various stages of their careers. 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. Often referred to as the “Heisman Trophy of Opera,” the award comes with a $50,000 cash prize as well as the ongoing support of the Tucker family and Foundation.
The 2014 award-winner is Michael Fabiano, hailed as “the tenor that we have all been waiting for” (San Francisco Classical Voice). At just 29, the native of Montclair, NJ, has already appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Real, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Dresden Semperoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, English National Opera, Glyndebourne, and the Teatro San Carlo. This season he sings the title role in Faust with the Australian Opera and returns to the San Francisco Opera as Rodolfo in La bohème. A graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, his previous honors include the 2014 Beverly Sills Award, a 2007 Sara Tucker Study Grant, and a Grand Prize in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Barry Tucker, President of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation and eldest son of the celebrated American tenor for whom it is named, stated:
“We are thrilled to have such an incredible lineup of singers with us this year and to introduce Michael Fabiano—a great American tenor like my father—as the 2014 Richard Tucker Award-winner. We are also very pleased to continue our partnership with Emmy Award-winning PBS series Live From Lincoln Center for a third consecutive year; because of this special relationship, we are able to bring opera into households across the country.”
The full list of singers featured on the gala program is provided below. 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, www.richardtucker.org, as well as at www.lincolncenter.org, by calling CenterCharge (212) 721-6500, or at the Avery Fisher Hall box office. Reservations for the gala dinner on the Grand Promenade that follows the concert can be arranged by contacting the Tucker Foundation offices at (212) 757-2218.
In advance of the annual Richard Tucker Gala on October 12, WQXR 105.9 FM, New York’s classical radio station, presents a special event featuring singers including 2014 Richard Tucker Award-winner Michael Fabiano and special guest Renata Scotto, who previously sang opposite Tucker himself, on Tuesday, October 7 at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in Lower Manhattan. Tickets will be available at www.thegreenespace.org, and the event will also be streamed live online at www.wqxr.org.
Further information about the 2014 gala and the work of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation is available at www.richardtucker.org.
Richard Tucker Music Foundation presents:
2014 RICHARD TUCKER GALA
October 12 at 6:30pm
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City
2014 Richard Tucker Award winner Michael Fabiano
Winners of Richard Tucker Music Foundation grants and honored guests:
Ildar Abdrazakov, bass
Elena Bocharova, mezzo-soprano
Joseph Calleja, tenor
Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano
Stephen Costello, tenor (2009 Richard Tucker Award winner)
Marcello Giordani, tenor
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano (2013 Richard Tucker Award winner)
Zeljko Lucić, baritone
Angela Meade, soprano (2011 Richard Tucker Award winner)
Anna Netrebko, soprano
Nicholas Pallesen, baritone
Andrew Stenson, tenor
Pretty Yende, soprano
New York Choral Society
Maestro Emmanuel Villaume, conductor
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© 21C Media Group, September 2014
