Marilyn Horne Song Competition

The Marilyn Horne Song Competition is an annual competition for participants of the voice and piano programs at the Music Academy of The West.

Name

The Competition was launched in 1997 as the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition and held by the Marilyn Horne Foundation. In 2010 the foundation’s programs became part of the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. The Competition is since being held by the Music Academy of the West under its current name. ^[1]

Overview

The competition is held in front of a jury and a public audience. Singers perform three songs, one of which has to be in English. The pianists accompany at least one of the singers. Winning singers and pianists can, but don't have to have performed together. The winners receive a monetary prize and the opportunity to perform in a prestigious venue, among other things. ^{[2] [3]}

The competition commemorates Gwendolyn Koldofsky, who established the first Department of Accompanying at the University of Southern California in 1947. ^[4] Marilyn Horne recalls Kodofsky as “Teacher, mentor, accompanist, and my dear friend.” Together they had toured for 10 years. ^[5]

List of winners

Year	Singer	Voice type	Pianist	Jury members [6]
1998	Isabel Bayrakdarian	soprano	Spencer Myer
1999	Dina Kuznetsova	soprano
2000	Liesel Fedkenheuer	mezzo-soprano	Spencer Myer
	Nicolai Janitzky	baritone	Ji Young Lee
2001	Ramon Diggs	tenor	Nino Sanikidze
2002	Deborah Domanski	mezzo-soprano	Jerome Tan	Marilyn Horne, Michael Benchetrit, Fred Carama, Barbara Hocher, Gayletha Nichols
2003	Megan Latham	mezzo-soprano	Carol Wong	Marilyn Horne, Michael Benchetrit, Mary Lou Falcone, Barbara Hocher, Robert White
2004	Daniela Lehner	mezzo-soprano	Marie-Ève Scarfone	Marilyn Horne, Michael Benchetrit, Sheri Greenawald, Barbara Hocher, Bill Vendice
2005	Elaine Alvarez	soprano	Tamara Sanikidze	Marilyn Horne, Michael Benchetrit, Mary Lou Falcone, Barbara Hocher, Brian Zeger
	Isabel Leonard	mezzo-soprano
2006	Evan Hughes	bass-baritone		Marilyn Horne, Mary Lou Falcone, Barbara Hocher, Speight Jenkins, Robert White
2007	Nadine Sierra	soprano	Karen Kyung-Eun Na	Marilyn Horne, Michael Benchetrit, Thomas Hampson, Barbara Hocher, Ken Noda (absent), Gianna Rolandi
2008	Simone Osborne	soprano	In-Sun Suh	Marilyn Horne, Michael Benchetrit, Barbara Hocher, Kenneth Merrill, and Joan Morris
	Edward Parks	baritone
2009	Jeffrey Hill	tenor	Lio Kuokman	Marilyn Horne, Mary Lou Falcone, Margo Garrett, Barbara Hocher, Peter Kazaras
	Ronnita Miller	mezzo-soprano
2010	Megan Marie Hart (as Megan Hart)	soprano	Sun Ha “Sunny” Yoon
2011	Karen Vuong	soprano	Saule Tlenchiyeva
2012	Tracy Cox	soprano	Maureen Zoltek
2013	John Brancy	baritone	Mario Antonio Marra
2014 [7]	Michelle Bradley	soprano	Michael Gaertner	Marilyn Horne, Barbara Hocher, Jeremy Geffen, Matthew Epstein, Alexander Neef, Craig Terry
2015 [8]	Benjamin Dickerson	baritone	Alden Gatt	Marilyn Horne, Matthew Epstein, Barbara Hocher, Martin Katz, Gayletha Nichols
2016 [9]	Ben Lowe	baritone	Madeline Slettedahl	Marilyn Horne, Margo Garrett, Barbara Hocher, Nicholas Mathias, Emmanuel Villaume
2017 [10]	Hannah Rose Kidwell	soprano	Christina Giuca	Marilyn Horne, Renée Fleming, Jake Heggie
2018 [11]	Kelsey Lauritano	mezzo-soprano	Andrew Sun	Marilyn Horne, Ricky Ian Gordon, Ken Noda, Susanna Phillips
2019 [12]	Sun-Ly Pierce	mezzo-soprano	Chien-Lin Lu	Marilyn Horne, Michael Heaston, Jennifer Higdon
2021 [13]	Shawn Roth	tenor	Alexander Soloway
2022 [14]	Joanne Evans	mezzo-soprano	Tzu-Kuang Tan	Ana María Martínez, Sasha Cooke, Martin Katz
2023 [15]	Navasard Hakobyan	baritone	Brian Cho
2024 [16]	Mariam Mouawad	mezzo-soprano	Eric Head	Brenda Rae, Peter Kazaras, Howard Watkins
2025 [17]	Jack Burrows	baritone	Tony Stauffer	Brad Moore, Ed Parks, Kamala Sankaram

References

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2. "Marilyn Horne transitions to Honorary Voice Program Director". 2017-12-21. Archived from the original on 2018-12-29. Alt URL
3. "Music Academy : Marilyn Horne Song Competition". musicacademy.org. Archived from the original on 2015-08-02. Retrieved 2018-12-16.
4. "Throwback Thursday: Celebrating Gwendolyn Koldofsky". music.usc.edu. Archived from the original on 2014-10-29. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
5. Papakhian, Ana (2015-07-20). "2015 Winners of Marilyn Horne Song Competition Announced". www.noozhawk.com. Archived from the original on 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
6. "Guide to the Marilyn Horne Foundation Records, 1991-2011 CTC.2010.01 | Historic Pittsburgh". historicpittsburgh.org. Archived from the original on 2018-12-29. Retrieved 2018-12-29.
7. "Marilyn Horne Song Competition Winners Announced | PressReleasePoint". www.pressreleasepoint.com. Archived from the original on 2015-07-08. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
8. "2015 Marilyn Horne Song Competition Winners Announced | PressReleasePoint". www.pressreleasepoint.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
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10. Raskaukas, Stephen (2018-03-28). "Watch Marilyn Horne Song Competition Winners Hannah Rose Kidwell and Christina Giuca perform LIVE". 98.7WFMT. Archived from the original on 2018-12-28. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
11. "Music Academy of the West announces Marilyn Horne Song Competition and Solo Piano Competition winners International Recital Tours | PressReleasePoint". www.pressreleasepoint.com. Archived from the original on 2018-12-28. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
12. "Music Academy of the West Marilyn Horne Song Competition Winners Recital". www.pressreleasepoint.com. 10 April 2020. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
13. Martell, Logan (2021-08-24). "Music Academy of the West Announces Winners of 2021 Summer School and Festival Competitions". OperaWire. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
14. Salazar, David (2022-08-25). "Joanne Evans & Tzu-Kuang Tan Major Winners of Marilyn Horne Song Competition". OperaWire. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
15. Salazar, David (2023-10-14). "Baritone Navasard Hakobyan Among Winners of Music Academy's Marilyn Horne Song Competition 2023". OperaWire. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
16. Oberjat, Kate (2024-08-05). "Announcing the 2024 Summer Festival Competition Winners". Music Academy of the West. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
17. Staff (2025-08-04). "Music Academy of the West Celebrates 2025 Winners of Duo Competition and Marilyn Horne Song Competition". The Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved 2025-08-20.