About the Competition

In 1998, to honor the centenary of the birth of Lotte Lenya (1898-1981), an extraordinary singer/actress and one of the foremost interpreters of the music of her husband, Kurt Weill (1900-1950), the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music established an annual Lotte Lenya Competition.

The competition recognizes talented young singer/actors who are dramatically and musically convincing in repertoire ranging from opera/operetta to contemporary Broadway scores, with a focus on the works of Kurt Weill. More than a vocal competition, the Lotte Lenya Competition is a theater singing competition that emphasizes wide-ranging repertoire and the acting of songs and arias within a dramatic context.

Previous Lenya Competition winners are making careers playing leading and featured roles in major theaters and opera houses around the globe. They have performed:

• On Broadway, in London's West End, in national and international tours of Broadway shows, and in major regional theaters.


• With the Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Royal Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, Hamburg Staatsoper, Oper Leipzig, Oper Frankfurt, and many other regional opera companies.


• At the Tanglewood, Spoleto, Ravinia, Bard, Caramoor, Castleton, Cincinnati May, Aldeburgh, and Glyndebourne Festivals, Festival Aix-en-Provence, and the New York Festival of Song.

Guidelines

View 15th Anniversary commemorative program.

See press release on 2013 Competition Finalists and Judges.

Read Peabody Award winner Michael Lasser's profile of the Competition (from the Spring 2009 Kurt Weill Newsletter).

Watch previous Lenya Competition prizewinners' performances here.