Thompson and Ferran Take Top Honors at 2026 Art Song Competition

By Daniel Okafor

Soprano Anna Thompson and tenor Edward Ferran have each won $12,000 as top prize winners of the 2026 Art Song Competition, run by the Gerda Lissner Foundation in association with The Liederkranz Foundation. That's the headline figure. The rest of the prize list is nearly as tidy.

Baritone Dominic Townsend takes the $2,500 Judges' Special Prize, joining Thompson and Ferran at the top of a roster the Foundation will present publicly on Thursday, April 29, 2027, at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. The Winners Concert will also feature the top prize winners of the 2027 International Vocal Competition, plus collaborative pianists (the pianists who partner with singers rather than solo) Francesco Barfoed and Arlene Shrut.

Who else won money?

Six singers received $2,000 grants. The Foundation spread them across voice types:

• Sophia Baete, mezzo-soprano
• Lindsay Martin, mezzo-soprano
• Shannon Crowley, soprano
• Sabrina Langlois, soprano
• Laura Thaller, soprano
• Justice Yates, baritone

Nine prize winners in total, then, and a judging panel that reads like a small convocation of the American vocal establishment. Preliminary rounds ran October 13-15, with the finals following on October 16 at The Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City. Art song, for the record, is the realm of the classical art song repertoire for voice and piano. Lieder money is serious money here, at least by competition standards, where a $12,000 check is roughly what a young singer earns for a summer of young-artist programming.

Who judged the competition?

The panel had five members, and the Foundation named them all. Francesco Barfoed, collaborative pianist and coach, sits on faculty in Italian diction at The Juilliard School and will accompany the winners in April. Michael Benchetrit is founder and president of Minerva Artists. Alison d'Amato, assistant professor of vocal coaching at the Eastman School of Music, co-founded Art Song Lab at the Vancouver International Song Institute. F. Paul Driscoll, vice president of The Gerda Lissner Foundation, is a former editor in chief of Opera News. Midge Woolsey rounds out the panel as president and co-artistic director of the Foundation.

What happens next?

The April 29 concert is the story's real proving ground. Zankel Hall, Carnegie's basement auditorium, will pair the 2026 art song winners with the still-unannounced victors of the 2027 International Vocal Competition, which means Thompson, Ferran and Townsend get a Carnegie debut date on the calendar before their prize money has time to clear.