The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music has named Andrew Polec as the first prize winner in its 23rd annual Lotte Lenya Competition, which recognizes young singer-actors who are adept in both opera and operetta as well as Broadway music. Polec will receive a $20,000 first prize plus a $2,000 finalist prize. There were 15 finalists, culled from a record applicant pool of 500 entrants this year, from 29 countries and 39 US states.
Each finalist performed a continuous 15-minute program of four contrasting numbers, including at least one by Kurt Weill. Polec performed “She Loves Me” from She Loves Me by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, “Bilbao Song” from Happy End by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (Michael Feingold translation), “Confession Aria” from Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie, and “How Glory Goes” from Floyd Collins by Adam Guettel. The judges — which included Victoria Clark, Mary Beth Peil, and Andy Einhorn — described Polec’s prorgam as “four perfectly curated one-act dramas.”
A graduate of the Brown-Trinity Rep MFA program, Polec has appeared Off-Broadway in The Fantasticks and on TV Katy Keene and Prodigal Son. His recent roles include Berger in Hair at the Old Globe in San Diego and Strat in Bat Out of Hell at the London Coliseum and New York’s City Center. Below is a sample of Polec’s winning program. His entire performance plus the awards ceremony, which took place in New York City on August 28, is available free and on-demand via OperaVision.