Visiting FRIEDRICH SCHORR at the MET

Maestro David Katz, chief judge of The American Prize, the national, nonprofit competitions in the performing arts, attended the opening night of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at the Metropolitan Opera last weekend. During his visit, he viewed the extensive display of photographs of stars of past MET performances of Wagner's Ring Cycle in the MET Gallery, where he was not surprised to see portraits of the legendary baritone, Friedrich Schorr, namesake of The American Prize—Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Awards. Schorr is shown in two of his most famous roles, as Wotan (top) and disguised as the Wanderer (bottom.) 

Also prominently displayed in the MET lobby, and in pride of place (thanks to an accident of the alphabet) is a portrait of Brenda Lewis as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. (To her left is MET music director, James Levine.) Miss Lewis was recently announced as the first Distinguished Judge Emerita of The American Prize.

To read more about Miss Lewis's extraordinary career, follow this link. 

To read a short biography of Schorr, please scroll down to earlier posts.

Beginning in 1990 and continuing for more than a dozen years, The Friedrich Schorr Memorial Performance Prize in Voice provided a proving ground for literally hundreds of professional singers from throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the British Isles, who won major roles in fully-staged opera productions and oratorio soloist opportunities under Maestro Katz's baton with opera companies and orchestras in Michigan, Maine and Connecticut.

After a hiatus of several years, the Schorr Prize returned in 2010, now under the auspices of The American Prize competitions. Re-named the Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award, the competition has been restructured to recognize and reward vocalists in art song as well as in opera through the evaluation of recorded performances.

Winners of the 2012 Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Awards will be announced later in May. For previous winners, visit the winners pages on The American Prize website.