Dawn Upshaw has been named among the inaugural ten inductees to the Opera Hall of Fame. The Opera Hall of Fame, established this year on the occasion of OPERA America's 50th anniversary, recognizes the achievements of outstanding living American artists, administrators, and advocates who have strengthened the art form and the field.

The 2020 inductees will enter the Opera Hall of Fame alongside those formerly recognized through the NEA Opera Honors, administered by the National Endowment for the Arts in collaboration with OPERA America from 2008 to 2011, including John Adams.

“This year marks OPERA America’s 50th anniversary, but the focus of our commemoration is on the growth and success of opera in America over these past 50 years," says Marc A. Scorca, president and CEO of OPERA America. "We created the Opera Hall of Fame to shine a spotlight on some of the leaders who made indelible contributions to the art form and the filed during that period. These artists, administrators, and advocates laid the groundwork for opera to become what it is today in North America, and their ground-breaking work continues to shape the field as we look toward the future.”

"At the Met in the 1980s and 1990s, Dawn Upshaw set new standards for the roles of Susanna, Ilia, Pamina, Despina, and Zerlina," writes Opera America magazine editor Fred Cohn. "But she increasingly began to concentrate on contemporary work, appearing in the world premieres of Saariaho’s L’amour de loin, Golijov’s Ainadamar, Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, and John Adams’ oratorio El Niño. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated her allegiance to the song and concert repertoire and has introduced dozens of works in that area to the world. She has also proved herself a sterling interpreter of the Great American Songbook, making recordings of songs by Bernstein, Gershwin, Rodgers, Sondheim, and Weill. In 2007, Upshaw became the only opera singer to date to receive a MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant.' In more recent years, she has become a leading educator, establishing the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music in 2006 and serving as its artistic director until 2019."

An induction ceremony for the inaugural class will be held in early 2022 in New York City. An installation will also be created to honor all the members of the Opera Hall of Fame in the Sherrill Milnes Honors Gallery at OPERA America’s National Opera Center in Manhattan.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2021 cycle of the Opera Hall of Fame. For more information and to submit nominations, visit operaamerica.org.