The Glimmerglass Festival and the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music have announced a new collaboration.
The Foundation is undertaking an annual sponsorship of a Kurt Weill/Lotte Lenya Glimmerglass Young Artist, a talented emerging singer who has previously made the finals of the prestigious Lotte Lenya Competition, an international theater singing competition founded in 1998.
The Lotte Lenya Competition recognizes gifted young singers who excel in a wide range of repertoire extending from opera to musical theater, with a focus on the works of Kurt Weill. Many of the finalists and winners go on to enjoy major careers.
Glimmerglass annually trains 48 talented individuals selected from a pool of nearly 1,400 applicants, a testimony to the program’s quality and reputation.
Kim Kowalke, President of the Kurt Weill Foundation, hopes, “this will be the start of a wonderful, ongoing association that will help both organizations accomplish missions which have much in common.”
The first Kurt Weill/Lotte Lenya Glimmerglass Young Artist is Ben Edquist, who won the $15,000 top prize in this year’s Lotte Lenya Competition and who will play the role of Jigger Craigin in Carousel this season.