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year Joy in Singing Music Director
Paul Sperry, well-known for his own concert career, conducts a
series of public masterclasses to work with young singers. Through these
masterclasses the Joy In Singing Award Competition finalists are chosen.
Auditions for the masterclasses will be held in New York in October,
November and December, 2008.
Singers are selected to compete in the finals for:
- a New York
City debut recital at Merkin Concert Hall
- three paid
out-of-town tryouts
- ten hours of
recording/editing time at professional studio preparing a CD
- high-quality
video and audio tapes of debut recital
Judges for this
competition have included such noted musicians as Adele Addison,
Betty Allen, Dalton Baldwin, Edward Downes, Margo Garrett, Leontyne
Price, Bidú Sayão, William Sharp, and Risë Stevens.
James Benjamin Rodgers
 New
Zealand
born tenor James Benjamin Rodgers is currently in the Professional
Studies Program at the Manhattan School of Music where he is the
Orvis Foundation Scholar and studies with Neil Rosenshein.
He completed his M.M. at that school in 2007. He holds a B.Mus (Hons)
from the Victoria University of Wellington where he was in the
studio of Emily Mair. James has been a member of the Manhattan School Opera Studio and the American Musical Theatre
Ensemble with whom he sung the role of the Baker in Into the Woods.
In 2007 he sang the roles of Nemorino, L’elisir d’amore and
Ferrando, Cosi fan tutte in the Opera Scenes Program. In the fall
he sings the role of Sam in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. He was
also invited to appear in master classes with internationally renowned
baritone Thomas Hampson and Tony award winner Victoria Clark.
For the summer of 2008, James has been invited to San Francisco
Opera’s, Merola Opera Program. He will sing the title role in
Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring.
James’ operatic roles include: Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo; Pluto in Offenbach’s Orpheus and the Underworld;
Gherardo, Gianni Schichi. Musical theatre roles include: Alex in
Aspects of Love; the Baker in Into the Woods; Will in
Oklahoma!; Huck Finn in
Big
River. He has been
soloist in a number of choral works including: L’Enfance du Christ,
Berlioz; Handel’s Messiah; Mozart’s Requiem; Saint-Saens
Christmas Oratorio; Vaughn Williams Hodie; The
Creation, Haydn; 9th Symphony Beethoven.
James was the winner of the Lotte Lenya Competition 2007, Napier
Computer Systems Aria 2004, the PACANZ Vocal Young Performer of the Year
Award 2002 and the Wellington Newspapers Ltd. Aria Contest 2002. He
has received: Wellington Rotary Scholarship, Marie D’Albini Scholarship,
Bell Gully Travel Award, Napier Computer Systems Aria, Sir Henry Cooper
Memorial Scholarship in Music, a grant from the Lankhuyzen/Whetu
Kairangi Masonic Trust, Les & Sonia Andrews Cultural Foundation
Scholarship, Freemasons University Scholarship, Moyra Todd Scholarship,
Victoria University Postgraduate Scholarship and is the Orvis Foundation
Scholar at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2007 James was invited by
the Marylyn Horne Foundation to sing in a master class with
Evelyn Lear at Zankel in Carnegie Hall, NYC. He has also sung in
public master classes with Barbara Cook, Grace Bumbry,
Anthony Rolfe-Johnson and Teresa Kubiak.
www.jamesrodgerssinger.com
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Deborah Lifton
 A recent winner of the David Adams Art
Song Competition, Soprano Deborah Lifton is equally at home in opera,
song recital and musical theatre. Recent operatic appearances include
both Susanna and Cherubino in The
Marriage of Figaro, Valencienne in
The Merry Widow, Beth in
Little Women, Elisa in
Il Re Pastore, and Catherine
in A Death in the Family
(Albany Records), as well as the title roles in
Bastien und Bastienne,
L’enfant et les sortileges,
and Armida. She has appeared
in concert at Trinity
Church, the Kosciuszko
Foundation, and many other venues in the Tri-State area, including
performances with the Long Island Philharmonic. In April, Deborah was
featured at a Composer’s Concert at the Yamaha Showroom in New York. Ms. Lifton has also been a fellow
of the Aspen Music Festival and a Resident Artist with the Ash-Lawn
Highland and Natchez
festivals. This spring, Ms. Lifton can also be heard on sound tracks for
documentaries and nationally televised commercials. She holds a Master’s
degree from the Manhattan School of Music and Bachelor’s Degree in Voice
from the University of Michigan. Musical Studies with Barbara
Honn, Phyllis Curtin and Martin Katz. Deborah is currently an Assistant
Professor of Voice at Ithaca College.
http://faculty.ithaca.edu/dlifton/
Deborah
Lifton made her New York
recital debut in Merkin Concert Hall on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at
8:00 p.m.
Lee Gregory, baritone
2006 Award
Winner
Mr. Gregory made his New York recital debut in Merkin Concert Hall on
Wednesday, November 1, 2006.
 Also
a winner
of the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition, Lee Gregory
is an avid recitalist. He made his
Boston debut performing a recital with the Hammond Concert Series.
In the summer of 2005, Mr. Gregory sang
Mr. Marshall in Regina at Bard’s SummerScape Festival. He sang
John Brooke in Little Women with Dayton Opera and made his New
York City Opera debut in the 2003-04 season as Moralès in Carmen.
Mr. Gregory’s 2006-07 season will include his performances with Toledo
Opera and Nashville Opera as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette.
In the 2002-03 season Mr. Gregory sang
the title role in Don Giovanni and Melchoir in Amahl and the
Night Visitors with the Opera Company of Brooklyn. Other recent
performances include the roles of Maximillian in Candide and Ping
in Turandot with Des Moines Metro Opera, The Clock and The Cat in
L’Enfant et les Sortileges, and Peter in Hänsel and Gretel
with Ridge Light Opera; Marcello in La Bohème with American
Opera and Treasure Coast Opera; Yamadori in Madama Butterfly with
the New Jersey State Opera; Escamillo in Carmen with the Opera
Company of Brooklyn; and the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance
with the Trinity Repertory Company. As a regular performer with American
Opera projects, Lee Gregory has collaborated with new playwrights and
composers, performing their works in progress. He also added to
his many musical theater credits with a gala concert celebrating Richard
Rodgers’ centenary in a concert with the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra.
Mr.
Gregory has participated in a number of prestigious training programs
including San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program and the Western
Opera Theater Tour, Aspen Music Festival, Cincinnati Opera's Apprentice
Artist Program, and the Des Moines Metro Opera Tour. He is also the
recipient of the Dean Goodman Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Theater for John P. Wintergreen in Of Thee I Sing /i>with
Lamplighters Music Theater.
From Previous
Award Winners:/font>
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"I was
awarded a Town Hall debut recital. That was the event which
launched my career. I cannot overemphasize the great value of
this prize. The meticulous preparation for the recital and the
support I received from the judges - all were instrumental in
setting the pattern for my artistic life."
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&–Nico Castel,
Our First Winner/font> |
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"Winning that
competition in 1977 was one of the high points of my life. The
prestige associated with this now famous vocal showcase was
invaluable to my management in procuring recital dates as well
as other engagements for me."
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–Linn Maxwell,
Mezzo-Soprano |
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&"Winning the
Joy In Singing competition was one of the biggest thrills of my
life. This feeling was surpassed only by the thrill of watching
the big wooden door leading to the stage of Alice Tully Hall
swing open as I took the stage to begin my recital. What a
fantastic experience."
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–Karen Holvik,
Soprano/font> |
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2005 Award
Winner
Alexander Hurd, baritone
Mr. Hurd
received 2nd Prize in the 2004 Young Concert Artists International
Auditions. In April 2003 a CEC International Partners ArtsLink Grant
took him to Slovenia to present a series of recitals and lectures on
Twentieth-Century American Art Song. A Fulbright Grantee, he studied the
Lied repertoire in Stuttgart, Germany. He has received fellowships to
the Aspen Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center. A graduate of
Oberlin College, he holds bachelors degrees in Modern European History
and Voice Performance as well as a master's degree in Voice Performance
from the University of Cincinnati. He is Assistant Professor of Music
and director of the Opera Studio at The University at Buffalo.
Recent performances include a recital of Twentieth-Century Art Song at
Slee Concert Hall at the University at Buffalo, the world premiere of
George Crumb's A Journey Beyond Time (in the version for male
voice) with Speculum Musicae at New York's Merkin Hall, the role of
Starveling in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Tanglewood,
Ein deutsches Requiem with the Lebanon Symphony Orchestra, and the
regional premiere of John Musto's River Songs in Cincinnati.
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