Baritone Nathan Gunn of South Bend, Ind., has won the 1996 Marian Anderson Award and its cash stipend of $20,000.
Gunn, 25, won the 1994 Metropolitan Opera National Auditions and has since sung several times at the Met. He sang the title role in "Don Giovanni" at Wolf Trap in 1995 and will make his debut this season at Carnegie Hall as a soloist in the "Brahms Requiem" under Robert Shaw.The award was founded in Danbury, Conn., in 1989 by friends and neighbors of the late American singer for whom it is named. It is given each year to an American singer considered to show great promise.
Singers are not told they are being considered for the prize; nominations are submitted during the year by music critics and heads of major orchestras and opera companies.