The soprano was awarded third prize in the prestigious international theatre singing contest during the final round of the competition on April 13.
Lauren Roesner. Photo courtesy of the Kurt Weill Foundation.
CINCINNATI, OH — CCM graduating senior Lauren Roesner (BFA Musical Theatre, 2013) has been named a winner of the 2013 Lotte Lenya Competition. Originally from Chicago, Roesner was awarded third prize in the prestigious international theatre singing contest during the final round of the competition on Saturday, April 13, in Rochester, New York. The competition finals were held just one day before Roesner’s CCM Musical Theatre Senior Showcase debut in New York.
CCM Professor and Distinguished Chair of Musical Theatre Aubrey Berg explains that, at 21 years old, “Lauren must be one of the youngest performers, if not the youngest, to ever become a finalist in this prestigious event.”
CCM Associate Professor and Distinguished Chair of Opera Robin Guarino attended this year’s competition and notes, “Lauren was competing against and won over singers already performing major roles on Broadway and at the Metropolitan Opera!”
The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, which sponsors the competition, distributed a record $61,500 in prizes this year. Roesner received a third prize of $7500. CCM alumna Heather Phillips, soprano, was also a finalist in the competition and received an award of $1000.
Several other current and former CCM students were awarded special prizes during this year’s competition. Learn more about those awards here.
About Lauren Roesner
A graduating senior from CCM’s acclaimed Musical Theatre program, Lauren Roesner has been seen regionally at Wagon Wheel Theatre as Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray, Maria Mirelli in Lend Me A Tenor, Mrs. Darling/Indian Dancer in Peter Pan and in various roles in Big River, State Fair and Legally Blonde. At CCM, she has been seen as Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, Sarah in The Civil War, Rapunzel in Into the Woods, Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music, Bess in The Human Comedy, Ensemble in Oklahoma! and in Out of This World, Evita and Anything Goes.
About the Lotte Lenya Competition
Founded in 1998 to celebrate the centenary of Lenya’s birth, the Lotte Lenya Competition recognizes talented young singer/actors, ages 19-32, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire.
This year’s panel of judges included acclaimed soprano and 2010 Opera News Award winner Patricia Racette, British opera and musical theatre conductor James Holmes, and Theodore S. Chapin, President of Rodgers & Hammerstein and Vice-Chairman of the American Theater Wing.
Chapin, who has judged the Competition eight times, said, “The Lenya Competition was founded to address a need for performers who can both sing and act. In the spirit of Kurt Weill, it bridges the gap between musical theater and a more serious kind of sung-through theater. It’s the perfect way to do it, and it’s been a wonderfully successful program.”
Each contestant presented a diverse program that included an aria from the opera or operetta repertoire; two songs from the American musical theatre repertoire (one from the pre-1968 “Golden Age” and one from 1968 or later); and a theatrical selection by Kurt Weill. After a preliminary round of auditions, 24 semi-finalists from five continents auditioned in New York for adjudicator/coaches Jeanine Tesori and Rebecca Luker, who then selected the 12 finalists.
About the Lotte Lenya Competition
The Lenya Competition celebrated its 15th Anniversary this year. Since its inception, the Kurt Weill Foundation has awarded more than $500,000 to exceptionally talented young singer-actors, many of whom are enjoying prominent careers in musical theater, opera, and sometimes both. In the past year alone, previous winners’ credits include performances on Broadway (Kyle Barisich, Morgan James); in national and international tours (Richard Todd Adams, Maria Failla, Zachary James, Ariela Morgenstern); at regional theaters such as Baltimore Centerstage, Westport Country Playhouse, and Portland Center Stage (Erik Liberman), The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park (Cooper Grodin), and Classic Stage Company (Amy Justman); and on major opera stages including the Metropolitan Opera (Paul Corona, Ginger Costa-Jackson), Los Angeles Opera (Rodell Rosel, Liam Bonner), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Rodell Rosel, Lucas Meachem), Florida Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Oper Leipzig (Jonathan Michie), Houston Grand Opera (Liam Bonner), New York City Opera (Lauren Worsham, Jennifer Goode Cooper), Glimmerglass Festival (Noah Stewart, Ginger Costa-Jackson), English National Opera and Teatro Real Madrid (Zachary James), Hamburg Staatsoper and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (Rebecca Jo Loeb), and Oper Frankfurt (Elizabeth Reiter).
Learn more about this year’s competition winners here.
The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is recognized both nationally and internationally as one of the leading conservatories for the performing and electronic media arts, composition, scholarship and pedagogy.
CCM is the largest single source of performing arts events in Ohio with an annual calendar of nearly 1,000 performances and presentations, ranging from solo recitals to full-scale opera and musical theatre performances.
All event dates and programs are subject to change.
For a complete calendar of events visit our website at http://ccm.uc.edu.
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