Winners of the 2025 Lenya Competition Announced!
George Robarts, Tamara Bounazou, and Elenora Hu take home top prizes
Winners of the 2025 Lenya Competition
1st Prize, $25,000: George Robarts
2nd Prize, $20,000: Tamara Bounazou
3rd Prize, $15,000: Elenora Hu
Outstanding Performance of a Selection by Kurt Weill, $6,000: Queen Hezumuryango
Outstanding Performance of a Contemporary Musical Theater Selection, $6,000: Gemma Nha
Audience Choice Award, $3,000
Rebecca Madeira – “When He Sees Me” from Waitress
Each remaining finalist receives $3,000
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Meet the Finalists
Rebecca Madeira
Rebecca Madeira is a multidisciplinary artist from New Jersey. Graduating with a B.A. in Music from Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts in 2021, she has since performed musical theatre, opera, and choral repertoire in the US and abroad. Credits include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Philia u/s) and Sweeney Todd (Swing) at Signature Theatre, Anything Goes (Hope) at Milton Theatre, Seussical (Gertrude McFuzz) at Light Opera of NJ, and The Magic Flute (Pamina) at the International Lyric Academy. She has also originated new works including CreArtBox’s Architecture of a Common Man, and Brooklyn Tavern Theatre’s Walls and Windows. She previously received an Emerging Talent Award in the 2023 Lenya Competition. Endless thanks to her family!
Ian Williams
Ian Williams is a professional singing actor located in South Bend, IN, and the owner of the Ian Michael Vocal Studio. Recent theater credits include Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at Wagon Wheel Theatre (Drifter/Ensemble), Tosca (The Jailer) with South Bend Lyric Opera, and Gianni Schicchi (Simone) with Purdue University Fort Wayne. Ian is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BMA in Voice Performance and Bachelor of Theatre Arts. He has studied the principles of Levels I-III of the LoVetri Institute of Somatic Voicework™. He is also the co-founder of the Fort Wayne and South Bend chapters of Opera on Tap, a non-profit based out of New York City.
Tamara Bounazou
Tamara Bounazou is a French-Algerian lyric soprano known for her versatility in opera roles. In Vienna, she performed at the Schloss Schönbrunn Theater as Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), and Carolina (Il matrimonio segreto). In France, she appeared as Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) and L’Amour (Platée) at the Opéra National de Paris, and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Recently, she performed Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress) with Barbara Hannigan at the Cologne Philharmonie and Eurydice (Orphée aux Enfers) with Marc Minkowski at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Among her upcoming projects is the title role in Iphigénie en Tauride at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, conducted by Louis Langrée and directed by Wajdi Mouawad.
Schyler Vargas
Acclaimed as a “superb” (New York Stage Review) and “powerful” baritone (Washington Post), Mexican-American Schyler Vargas is gaining recognition as a premier cross-over artist, succeeding in comedic and dramatic roles in opera, operetta, and musical theater. Notable credits include performing at Carnegie Hall twice with MasterVoices in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath and Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe, and premiering UNKNOWN by Shawn Okpebholo, which was featured on PBS NewsHour and NPR. Role highlights include: Guido, Nine; Eisenstein, Die Fledermaus; Cinderella’s Prince and Wolf, Into the Woods; Papageno, Die Zauberflöte; Riff, Diesel, and Chino, West Side Story; El payador, María de Buenos Aires; and Count Almaviva, Le nozze di Figaro.
Elenora Hu
Praised for her vocal technique and musical sensitivity, Dutch soprano Elenora Hu’s repertoire includes the Second Nymph (Rusalka), Amina (La Sonnambula), and Madama Cortese (Il Viaggio a Reims). She is an alumna of the Dutch National Opera Studio in Amsterdam and the Accademia Rossiniana “Alberto Zedda” in Pesaro. Elenora has sung in several oratorios, including the St. John and St. Matthew Passions (J.S. Bach), Ein deutsches Requiem (Brahms), and Carmina Burana (Orff). As a recitalist, she and her duo partner, Amy Chang, were awarded the Vrienden van het Liedprijs at the International Vocal Competition in Den Bosch in 2023. In 2021, she recorded American Songs Remembered with Roberta Alexander and pianist Gilbert den Broeder.
Gemma Nha
Korean-Australian soprano Gemma Nha is part of the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she debuted as the Page in Rigoletto, reprised Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, and performed as Jess and covered Ashley in Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners. Her repertoire ranges from Mozart to musical theatre; roles include: Barbarina (Volksoper Wien) and Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Schlosstheater Schönbrunn), Tuptim in The King and I (Seefestspiele Mörbisch) and Meg in 7 Little Australians (Opera Carnivale). Gemma was the first female singer to win the Seoul International Music Competition and was a National Semifinalist of the Laffont Metropolitan Opera Competition. She holds a MM from Juilliard as a Toulmin Scholar and Kovner Fellow, and a BA from University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
Crystal Glenn
New York native, Crystal Glenn, is an alumna of Manhattan School of Music (MM, Opera Performance) and Westminster Choir College of Rider University (BM, Vocal Performance). She recently appeared as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Taconic Opera. Other highlights include: soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with Princeton Pro Musica; Julie (cover) in Rhiannon Giddens’ & Michael Abels’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Omar, with Carolina Performing Arts and the Spoleto Festival USA; Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Oscar in Un ballo in maschera with Taconic Opera; Pamina and Despina in Die Zauberflöte and Così fan tutte, respectively, with New York Opera Conservatory in Westchester County, NY.
Jonathan Heller
Jonathan Heller is a New York City based actor, singer, and dancer. National Tour: CATS – Vacation Swing (Munkustrap, Old Deuteronomy, Gus/Bustopher Jones). Regional: Chicago – Fred Casely/Ensemble, Billy Flynn u/s (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina), Summer: The Donna Summer Musical – Giorgio/Ensemble, Neil Bogart u/s (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina), I Left My Heart – Man 1 (RMRT), Cinderella – Prince Christopher (OLO), Hello, Dolly! – Barnaby Tucker (OLO), The Pirates of Penzance – Samuel (OLO), A Little Night Music – Frid (CLOC). B.M. Eastman School of Music, M.M. NYU Steinhardt. Love and gratitude to my family and friends for their constant support! For Ted. @jonathanhellerj
Olivia LaPointe
Canadian soprano Olivia LaPointe has extensive experience spanning opera, musical theater, jazz, and pop. She is a District Winner in the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and won Third Prize in the 2024 Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition. Recent roles include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (VIMA, Italy), Angelica in Orlando, Giulietta in Un giorno di regno (Opera McGill), Lily in The Secret Garden (Opera NUOVA), and Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann (HSOF), for which Opera Canada praised her as “breathtakingly perfect.” In 2023, she debuted in Europe as a Voice Fellow with Opernfest Prague. She loves performing with her family’s vocal group and teaching voice. Olivia received her MM from McGill Univ. and her BM from the Univ. of Toronto.
George Robarts
George Robarts has performed at such venues as the Edinburgh International Festival, Garsington Opera, and the Grange Festival. A 2023 Guildhall graduate, he made his theatrical debut in Longborough Festival Opera’s adaptation of The Fairy Queen, winning praise for his “lanky, delightful Bottom” (The Stage). Credits include numerous Mozart and Britten roles (Count Almaviva, Leporello; Junius, Noye, Starveling), and various comic parts. He has appeared in recital alongside Graham Johnson and Dame Felicity Lott, performing wide-ranging repertoire from Schubert to Noël Coward. George studied German and Italian at Oxford University, developing a keen interest in Weill, Brecht, and the music of Weimar Germany, around which he has devised several performances.
Queen Hezumuryango
Originally from Burundi, Queen Hezumuryango holds both B.M. and M.M. degrees in Vocal Performance from the University of Montreal and is a returning member of the Canadian Opera Company’s 2024-2025 Ensemble Studio. Performance credits include Ebba Sparre in La Reine-garçon (COC), Mercédès in Carmen (COC), and Rosina in The Barber of Seville (Highlands Opera Studio). She was a semifinalist in the OSM Competition in 2021 and won an Encouragement Award at the Eastern Region of the Met’s Laffont Competition in 2023. In 2024, she was named one of CBC’s “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30” and nominated for a Dora Award for her work in Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha. This is her second time participating in the finals of the Lenya Competition.
Meet the Judges
Rob Berman
Rob Berman is an Emmy and Grammy Award-winning New York based conductor and music director. For fifteen years he was the music director of Encores!, New York City Center’s acclaimed series of great American musicals in concert, where he conducted over thirty productions, including the revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, which transferred to a Broadway run and for which he received a Grammy Award as co-producer and conductor of the cast recording. This past March, Berman conducted the long-awaited revival of Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s Love Life for Encores! Other productions he conducted for Encores! include Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza, Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon, Cole Porter’s The New Yorkers, Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella, Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle, and Weill’s Lost in the Stars. On Broadway, Rob was music director and vocal arranger for the Steve Martin and Edie Brickell musical Bright Star, which was nominated for 5 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score. Rob’s additional Broadway credits as a conductor include the revival of Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Town; the Tony Award-winning production of The Pajama Game; the stage adaptation of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas; and revivals of Finian’s Rainbow, The Apple Tree, and Promises, Promises. For nine years, Rob was music director of the Kennedy Center Honors, for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction.
Catherine Malfitano
Catherine Malfitano— singer, actor, director, and teacher—was born in New York City to a dancer/actress mother, and a violinist father. Renowned as a unique music theatre performer, she repeatedly sang on all of the world’s leading opera, concert, and recital stages, collaborating with the most eminent conductors, pianists, and directors. Her Emmy Award-winning portrayal of Tosca, telecast live from the actual Roman settings, was seen by more than one billion viewers worldwide. Ms. Malfitano’s stage repertoire of more than eighty roles spans the entirety of operatic history, including appearances in multiple works by Kurt Weill: Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera (Minnesota Opera), Rose and Anna Maurrant in Street Scene (New York City Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, respectively), Jenny in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Florence Maggio Musicale, Salzburg Festival and Lyric Opera of Chicago) and Anna I and II in Die sieben Todsünden (Cincinnati Opera, Brussels La Monnaie). Her championing of 20th and 21st Century music enabled Catherine to perform in 11 world premieres. She is proud to have been raised in New York City, and trained at The High School of Music and Art, and The Manhattan School of Music. Her early performances at these two illustrious schools ignited her passion for music and drama. Now that Ms. Malfitano’s primary focus is mentoring young singers and active professionals, she is thrilled to witness her students grace many of the same stages where she made her career.
Alison Moritz
After a decade of leading original productions in American regional opera houses, Alison Moritz was recently named Artistic Director of Central City Opera. She is known for her exciting interpretations of the classic repertoire and her equally incisive takes on contemporary music theatre. Her current projects include new productions of Don Giovanni at Opera Philadelphia, Aida with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, The Knock and Once Upon a Mattress at Central City. Her recent work includes the 50th anniversary production of Bernstein’s Mass at The Kennedy Center, and new productions of Faust at Wolf Trap Opera, Don Giovanni at Cincinnati Opera, Elizabeth Cree at the Glimmerglass Festival, and Candide at Atlanta Opera, Tanglewood, and Ravinia. An alumna of Eastman School of Music, Ms. Moritz has served on the directing staffs at Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Minnesota Opera and was a proud recipient of the KWF Harold Prince/Kurt Weill Directing Fellowship in 2016.
Getting to Kilbourn Hall, Rochester, NY
Kilbourn Hall is located at 26 Gibbs Street, Rochester, NY 14604, at the Eastman School of Music. Tickets to all Finals events are free, and seating is on a first come, first serve basis.
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