For 45 years, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation has been devoted to the advancement of opera in America through grants, advocacy, and education.

 
 
2014 Richard Tucker Day Concert Celebrating the 101th Birthday of Richard Tucker. Thursday August 28, 2014. New York Society for Ethical Culture. Photo: Erin Baiano.

2014 Richard Tucker Day Concert Celebrating the 101st Birthday of Richard Tucker. Thursday August 28, 2014. New York Society for Ethical Culture. Photo: Erin Baiano.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation, founded in 1975, is a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to perpetuating the artistic legacy of the great American tenor through the support and advancement of the careers of talented American opera singers by bringing opera into the community. The Foundation seeks to heighten appreciation for opera by offering free performances in the New York Metropolitan area and by supporting music education enrichment programs.

Through awards, grants for study, performance opportunities and other career-enhancing activities the Foundation provides professional development for singers at several levels of career-readiness.

 

Statement from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation (7/20/2020)

“The Richard Tucker Music Foundation condemns the hurtful and offensive comments made by one of our Board members, David Tucker. David has been removed from the Richard Tucker Foundation Board of Directors, effective immediately. David’s opinions do not align with the beliefs and mission of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, a Foundation built on the legacy of a Jewish-American singer who sought to bridge religious and cultural differences.

The Foundation recognizes the need to find ways we can better apply core values of equality and inclusion across our organization and programs. We know that we can improve our auditions and awards process to create more equitable opportunities and increase diversity organization-wide. To this end, we are currently assembling a diversity advisory task force of artists and thought leaders to address these issues. We look forward to openly sharing our next steps and continuing to support the next generation of operatic talent.”

– Jeffrey Manocherian, Chairman, and Barry Tucker, President, Richard Tucker Music Foundation Board of Directors

 
 
Richard Tucker Day Concert at Bowling Green, New York City. Thursday August 28, 2014. Photo: Erin Baiano.

Richard Tucker Day Concert at Bowling Green, New York City. Thursday August 28, 2014. Photo: Erin Baiano.

• The Sara Tucker Study Grant provides grants to singers, selected through a vocal competition, who are recently out of the university or conservatory and considered to be at the beginning of promising careers.

• The Richard Tucker Career Grant provides grants to singers, selected through a vocal competition, who have begun professional careers and who have already performed roles with opera companies nationally or internationally.

• The Richard Tucker Award is conferred annually upon a single artist who has reached a high level of artistic accomplishment and who, in the opinion of a conferral panel, is on the threshold of a major international career.

 
Anything you give to a young person who is trying to start their career is nothing but help.
— Anthony Clark Evans, baritone (Sara Tucker Study Grant and Richard Tucker Career Grant awardee)
Richard Tucker Award Winners Nadine Sierra (2017), Isabel Leonard (2013), and Ailyn Perez (2012).

Richard Tucker Award Winners Nadine Sierra (2017), Isabel Leonard (2013), and Ailyn Perez (2012).

Renée Fleming moderates a panel discussion about Richard Tucker at The Juilliard School with Barry Tucker, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Neil Shicoff.

Renée Fleming moderates a panel discussion about Richard Tucker at The Juilliard School with Barry Tucker, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Neil Shicoff.

 
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Programs of the Foundation, including master classes and concerts in a variety of community settings, provide performance opportunities for award winners and enrich the cultural life of the communities in which they take place. These concerts are frequently broadcast on the radio, offering an even wider public a chance to enjoy operatic and other types of vocal music.

The work of the Tucker Music Foundation is guided by a Board of Directors whose members include leaders in business, education and the arts. The Board, which is committed to strengthening the cultural life of New York City and the metropolitan region, provides intellectual, financial and artistic counsel to the Foundation’s management from a variety of perspectives and generates a network of support for the organization from the associations and constituencies its members represent.

In the past three decades, the reach of The Richard Tucker Music Foundation has become substantial: our winners and grantees sing all over the world, our programs finance the growth of young artists and the creation of new music, and our expanding educational programs bring help and hope to another generation through the gift of music.

This is Richard Tucker’s proud legacy.

 

Support

We hope you will help us to continue Richard Tucker’s legacy of helping young American singers, by becoming a supporter of the Foundation.