Winners Announced for Oratorio Society of NY's Annual Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mallory McFarland | Morahan Arts and Media
mallory@morahanartsandmedia.com | (646) 378-9386

WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR ORATORIO SOCIETY OF
NEW YORK’S 48TH ANNUAL LYNDON WOODSIDE
ORATORIO-SOLO COMPETITION FINALS CONCERT

Maximillian Jansen, Tenor, Wins First Place Robert E. Ludwig Award

Second Place Winner is Juliet Papadopoulos, Soprano,
Third Place Winner is Sarah Coit, Mezzo-Soprano

www.osny.org 

New York, NY (April 7, 2025) – The Oratorio Society of New York, led by Music Director Kent Tritle, announces the winners of its 48th Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition Finals Concert held at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, April 5, 2025, at 1:30pm.

Tenor Maximillian Jansen received the Robert E. Ludwig Award, earning First Place in the competition and a $7,000 cash prize. Juliet Papadopoulos, soprano, received the Meyerson/Zwanger Award, earning Second Place and a $5,000 prize, and Sarah Coit, mezzo-soprano, received the Janet Plucknett Award, earning Third Place and a $3,000 prize.

Additionally, Veronica Roan, mezzo-soprano, received the Watson Family Award ($2,500 prize), Madeline Healey, soprano, received the Barber Family Award ($1,500 prize), Fredy Bonilla, baritone, received the William Grogan Award ($1,000 prize), Paulina Francisco, soprano, received the Robert and Winifred Connelly Green Award ($1,000 prize), and Helaine Liebman-London, soprano, received the Leopold O. Damrosch Award ($1,000 prize).

Competition Finals judges included Ryan James Brandau, Lianne Coble-Dispensa, Warren Jones, Sidney Outlaw, and Kent Tritle. Collaborative Pianist Amir Farid accompanied the finalists in performance.

The prestigious annual Oratorio-Solo Competition was inaugurated in 1977 and encourages the art of oratorio singing, providing young singers the opportunity to advance their careers.

The OSNY concludes its 2024-25 season with the world premiere of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s All Shall Rise, as well as Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang on Monday, May 5, 2025 at 7:00 pm at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. Joining the Society, Maestro Tritle, and the Orchestra of the Society for this performance are soloists Susanna Phillips, soprano, Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano, Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, tenor, and Steven Eddy, baritone.

About the Oratorio Society of New York
The Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY.ORG) is one of the oldest musical organizations in the United States and has become New York City’s standard for grand choral performance. Founded in 1873 by Leopold Damrosch, the Society has played an integral role in the musical life of the city. In its early years, the Society established a fund to finance the building of a new concert hall, a cause taken up in earnest by the Society’s fifth president, Andrew Carnegie. In 1891, under the direction of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the Society helped inaugurate this new Music Hall, which would be renamed Carnegie Hall several years later.

The Society continues to perform several times each season at Carnegie Hall. Its annual performances of Handel’s Messiah, a New York holiday tradition unbroken since 1874, have become a holiday favorite with New York audiences. In addition to its collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, as well as other performing arts institutions, the Society performs internationally every few years – including recent concerts in Japan, Uruguay, Germany, Italy, and Brazil.

The Society is also committed to commissioning and championing new works, including most recently three pieces by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and Grammy Award-winning librettist Mark Campbell: Sanctuary Road which was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award and is available from Naxos Records, A Nation of Others, which saw its premiere in November 2022 and is available from Lexicon Classics, and All Shall Rise, focusing on voting rights in the U.S., to be premiered in 2025.

About Kent Tritle
Kent Tritle is one of America’s leading choral conductors. He is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, the acclaimed avocational chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, New York’s elite professional chorus. In addition, Kent is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School, serving its Vocal Arts Department. An acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is also the organist of the New York Philharmonic. 

Kent Tritle’s discography features more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI, and MSR Classics labels, including the Grammy-nominated 2018 world premiere performance of the Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell oratorio Sanctuary Road with the Oratorio Society of New York.

Kent Tritle is renowned as a master clinician, giving workshops on conducting and repertoire; he leads annual choral workshops at the Amherst Early Music Festival, and recent years have included workshops at Berkshire Choral International, Summer@Eastman, and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. As Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music from 2008 to 2022, Kent established the school’s first doctoral program in choral conducting.

Kent Tritle founded the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series at New York’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola and led it to great acclaim from 1989 to 2011. From 1996 to 2004, he was Music Director of New York’s The Dessoff Choirs. Among his recent honors are the 2020 Chorus America Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art, the 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award from Career Bridges, and the 2016 President’s Medal for Distinguished Service from the Manhattan School of Music. He was recently featured in the WIRED video series “Masterminds,” an installment titled, “What Conductors Are Really Doing”.

Photo at top of release by Steve Karger 

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