Met Taps 2026 Beverly Sills Artist Award Winner

Joining a list of distinguished recipients, tenor Ben Bliss has been chosen by the Metropolitan Opera to receive the 2026 Beverly Sills Artist Award, which gives him $50,000 and a pretty solid lock on future employment. The award, named for the late famed soprano, was established with a contribution from the late Agnes Varis and goes to “gifted singers with rising Met careers.”

This is not Bliss’s first Sills Award; post-Covid, he was one of five recipients in 2021, along with sopranos Erin Morley and Brenda Rae, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green. Last year’s prize went to soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen. Quinn Kelsey, Ailyn Pérez, and Joyce DiDonato are also among the anointed.  

As a Lindemann Young Artist Development participant, Bliss made his Met debut in 2014 as Vogelgesang in Die Meistersinger. Other Met credits include Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, the Steersman in Der Fliegende Holländer, Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress, Eric in Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded, and more, including major international houses. He will appear next season in the house debut of Kevin Puts’s Silent Night, singing the role of Nikolaus Sprink.

“I’m deeply honored to receive the Beverly Sills Award and be counted among the esteemed roster of former recipients,” said Bliss. “My connection to the Met began at home, reading my mother’s Opera News magazines. I remember taking a photo of Lincoln Center on my first visit to New York City in 2006, before I ever dreamed of singing at the Met or even pursuing a career in opera. To now call it my artistic home for nearly 15 years is truly extraordinary! It has been an amazing journey, filled with music and with wonderful colleagues and friends. I couldn’t be more blessed, honored, and proud!”

Other Bliss accolades have included the 2016 Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, first prize at the 2014 Gerda Lissner and Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation competitions, and the 2013 Operalia Don Plácido Domingo Sr. Zarzuela Prize.