{"id":51085,"date":"2018-02-17T18:39:52","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T23:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=51085"},"modified":"2018-02-19T08:42:56","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T13:42:56","slug":"the-scoop-canadians-dominate-george-london-foundation-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/02\/17\/the-scoop-canadians-dominate-george-london-foundation-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Canadians Dominate 2018 George London Foundation Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"George
George London Foundation President Nora London, second from left in front, with 2018 George London Award winners (front, left to right) Raehann Bryce-Davis, Lauren Margison, Benjamin Taylor, (rear, left to right) Lawson Anderson, Rihab Chaieb, and Emily D\u2019Angelo (Photo: Mark Von Holden)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The forty-seventh edition of New York\u2019s George London Foundation Awards Competition had an uncommonly Canadian sweep this year. Out of more than 150 applicants, whittled down to 72 finalists, three out of six of the winners ended up being Canadian.<\/p>\n

Lauren Margison, a 25-year-old soprano from Toronto, Emily D\u2019Angelo, a 23-year-old mezzo-soprano from Toronto, and Rihab Chaieb, a 30-year-old mezzo from Montreal, took home three of the top prizes, valued at $10,000 (US) each. Lauren Margison is currently in her final year as a member of the Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Atelier Lyrique and next year will join the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s Ensemble Studio, whereas Chaieb and D\u2019Angelo are both former members of the Ensemble who now hold coveted positions in the Metropolitan Opera\u2019s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program. Next year, Toronto opera-goers will be able to catch D\u2019Angelo in her role debut as Dorabella in the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s Cosi fan tutte.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s judges included baritone Richard Stilwell (a former George London Foundation Award winner, familiar to Toronto audiences for his portrayal of the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos in 2011), soprano Harolyn Blackwell, mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias, tenor George Shirley and George London Foundation President Nora London. The competition was accompanied by the renowned pianist and vocal coach, Craig Rutenberg.<\/p>\n

The George London Competition has a great track record for recognizing young artists on the cusps of major careers, including Joyce DiDonato, Ren\u00e9e Fleming and Eric Owens. Named for the bass-baritone, George London, an American born in Montreal who moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, the competition makes an effort to recognize both Canadian and American singers. Each year one of the $10,000 awards is designated to be awarded to a Canadian singer, although it is unusual for three of the top prizes to go to Canadians.<\/p>\n

When asked what winning the competition felt like, soprano Lauren Margison was incredulous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly still quite surreal,\u201d the young soprano divulged to Ludwig Van. \u201cI am absolutely over the moon, and extremely humbled and grateful to the George London Foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the competition, Ms. Margison offered Marguerite\u2019s \u201cJewel Song\u201d from Gounod\u2019s Faust, Ms. D\u2019Angelo sang Rosina\u2019s bravura \u201cUna voce poco fa\u201d from Rossini\u2019s Il barbiere di Siviglia (a role she will perform at this year\u2019s Glimmerglass Festival), and Ms. Chaieb \u201cOui, Dieu le veut\u201d from Jeanne d\u2019Arc by Tchaikovsky.<\/p>\n

Canadian opera fans have a lot to be proud of today.<\/p>\n

LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i>
\n<\/b><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The winners of the 47th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition\u2019s final round this evening, which took place before an enthusiastic audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":51087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,5,39,43],"tags":[5671,16867,16869,16868],"yst_prominent_words":[6885,8540,16864,16860,16859,12794,16848,16847,16857,16856,16850,16863,7415,16849,16862,16858,16855,9875,16865,16861],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/02\/George-London-Award-Winners-2018-with-Nora-London-photo-by-Mark-Von-Holden-GLC2686.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-dhX","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51085"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51094,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51085\/revisions\/51094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51085"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=51085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}