Soprano Leah Hawkins Wins the Met's Beverly Sills Artist Award

Hawkins will receive $50,000 in recognition of her rising Met career

The Metropolitan Opera has announced that soprano Leah Hawkins is the recipient of its Beverly Sills Award for 2024. The award carries a cash prize of $50,000 and recognizes extraordinarily gifted singers with rising Met careers.

Hawkins has previously taken part in the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and made her Met debut in Suor Angelica in 2018. During the 2023/24 season, she sang the principal role of Louise/Betty in the Met premiere of Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, after also appearing as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem.

She has also sung Giorgetta in Il Tabarro at Dutch National Opera; Louise/Betty at Seattle Opera; the title role of Tosca at the Santa Fe Opera and Opera Memphis; the Foreign Princess in Rusalka at Pittsburgh Opera; the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos at Arizona Opera; Mrs. Johannes “Ma” Zegner in the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up and Justice at the Opera with late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at Washington National Opera; and Desdemona in the world premiere of Marina Abramović’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Paris Opera.

Past recipients of the Beverly Sills Award include Joyce DiDonato, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Ryan Speedo Green.

"I am extremely honored and grateful to be the 2024 recipient of the Beverly Sills Award and to join this incredible group of recipients, all of whom I deeply admire and respect," Hawkins said. "From the moment I began the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, I’ve felt the love and support of the entire company."

"I am in awe of the legacy of Ms. Sills, whose vocal, artistic, and social prowess continue to inspire us all. I hope that my passion for people and my love for singing reflect the brilliance she inspired not only in my own life, but in those she touched on stage and off."