The Richard Tucker Award
The Richard Tucker Award is selected by conferral, rather than audition. This prestigious award carries not only the name of Richard Tucker and a cash prize of $50,000, but also a stellar list of past recipients. The operative guideline for the Richard Tucker Award is that it be awarded to an American singer poised on the edge of a major national and international career, and it is hoped that the award acts as a well-timed catalyst to elevate the artist’s career to even greater heights.
2025 Richard Tucker Award Winner
Photo by Fay Fox
Bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee has been described as “charismatic and charming” (New York Times) with a “commanding presence” and “rich tone” (Musical America). He is a first prize winner of the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, winner of the Zarzuela prize at Operalia, and a grand prize winner of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Nicholas begins the 24/25 season with a return to the Bayerische Staatsoper for a new Tobias Kratzer production of Das Rheingold (Wotan) followed by a return to Oper Frankfurt for new productions of Macbeth (title role), Parsifal (Amfortas), and a revival of Aida (Amonasro). Additional performances include debuts with Opéra national de Paris for the new Calixto Bieito production of Das Rheingold (Wotan), Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía for Der fliegende Holländer (Title Role), Oper Leipzig for Das Rheingold (Wotan), and a return to the Bayreuther Festspiele for Das Rheingold (Donner). On the concert stage, he debuts with the Cēsis Art Festival in a concert performance of Parsifal (Amfortas) and Prague Philharmonia Orchestra for a mixed program with Emmanuel Villaume.
“The Tucker Foundation, and namely Richard Tucker, helped turn opera into a real, homegrown American thing. It makes me proud as an American how he helped change the way that American schooling became the best schooling for voice.
Going through the Sara Tucker Study Grant, the Richard Tucker Career Grant, and now the big Richard Tucker Award, it’s hard to put into words how much each one of those stages has progressed my career. To be added to the list of previous award winners who have championed American opera singers is incredibly overwhelming, but it’s the biggest ‘attaboy’ that you could ever have — as an artist, you never really know the effect you’re making. You go out on stage every night, you give everything that you have, but you wonder, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ And when you get an award like this, it says you’re on the right path and to keep going, that what you’re doing matters as it’s affecting and touching people. It makes me proud to carry the Tucker name.
I also stand on the shoulders of every single educator and supporter of mine who saw talent in me when I didn’t see it in myself. Also, my wife, Jennifer, is my biggest supporter in the world. I am incredibly grateful.”
Richard Tucker Award Winners 1978-2025
2025 Nicholas Brownlee
2024 Clay Hilley
2023 No Award Given
2022 Angel Blue
2021 No Award Given
2020 No Award Given
2019 Lisette Oropesa
2018 Christian Van Horn
2017 Nadine Sierra
2016 Tamara Wilson
2015 Jamie Barton
2014 Michael Fabiano
2013 Isabel Leonard
2012 Ailyn Pérez
2011 Angela Meade
2010 James Valenti
2009 Stephen Costello
2008 No Award Given
2007 Brandon Jovanovich
2006 Lawrence Brownlee
2005 Eric Cutler
2004 Matthew Polenzani
2003 John Relyea
2002 Joyce DiDonato
2001 Christine Goerke
2000 Gregory Turay
1999 Stephanie Blythe
1998 Patricia Racette
1997 David Daniels
1996 Dwayne Croft
1995 Paul Groves
1994 Jennifer Larmore
1993 Ruth Ann Swenson
1992 Deborah Voigt
1991 No Award Given
1990 Renée Fleming
1989 Margaret Jane Wray
1988 Richard Leech
1987 Harry Dworchak
1986 Dolora Zajick
1985 Aprile Millo
1984 Roger Roloff
1983 Susan Dunn
1982 No Award Given
1981 J. Patrick Raftery
1980 Barry McCauley
1979 Diana Soviero
1978 Rockwell Blake