Its top prize, the Richard Tucker Award, which comes with a $50,000 award and a gala concert that is one of the primary highlights of the New York opera season, has been given 39 times since 1978, and only once to a Black singer: tenor Lawrence Brownlee. This is just the lowest level of award given by the Foundation. All six of the most recent round of Sara Tucker Grant winners in 2019 were white. Of those 96 Sara Tucker Grant awards, only 9 went to black singers. It has been awarded to only 1 Asian-American singer: tenor Andrew Stenson in 2011. I never did.Īccording to the list on the Tucker Foundation’s website, the Sara Tucker Study Grant has been awarded 96 times since it began in 1998. Because this opportunity to be seen and heard through the lens of these auditions was so important, I was told that it almost didn’t even matter whether I won or not. Exposure was the primary benefit of these auditions. Many artist managers, casting directors and artistic administrators who were not serving as judges would observe these auditions from the balcony of the 92nd St Y to keep track of rising talent. All I understood was that it was based on the recommendations of operatic gate keepers and tastemakers who served in the administrations of the nation’s top opera houses.Įach Spring, I was granted a special release from my employment in the Houston Grand Opera Studio in order to fly to New York to attend these auditions, which I was told were important. I never learned who nominated me the years I was invited to audition for the Sara Tucker Grant. I soon learned that this invitation was a very coveted and special one: only a handful of young American singers deemed the most promising were selected for these auditions.
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The letter invited me to the 92nd St Y on the Upper East Side of New York City, where I would sing an audition for a panel of judges comprised of casting directors, music directors, and senior artistic administrators from opera houses around the country.
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I remember the first time I received a letter from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation inviting me to audition for the Sara Tucker Study Grant.