The Kurt Weill Foundation, who is the founder of the Lotte Lenya Competition, has announced the creation of the Rebecca Luker Award after the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to include the prize annually. The Rebecca Luker Award will be recognize a Lotte Lenya finalist for outstanding performance of a musical selection from the Golden Age of American musical theater.
The Kurt Weill Foundation released the following statement on their website:
"Luker's career as an ingenue centered on this repertory, which she performed definitively and seemingly effortlessly. Her recordings remain a model and a standard for contestants in the Lotte Lenya Competition. The courage and commitment she demonstrated in adjudicating last year's semifinals from her wheelchair was an inspiration for the thirteen singers who were fortunate to experience Rebecca's warmth, wisdom, kindness, and radiance while she was already struggling with the ravages of ALS. Sitting next to Rebecca as she adjudicated and coached on six occasions was a privilege and profound tutelage I will treasure always."