2026 Distinguished Artist Award Recipient Announced
Yungchen Lhamo Will Receive Award at Ceremony on June 25, 2026
KINGSTON, NY – Mayor Steven T. Noble and the Kingston Arts Commission are pleased to announce the recipient of the 2026 City of Kingston Distinguished Artist Award is world-renowned Tibetan singer songwriter Yungchen Lhamo.
Mayor Noble said, “We are pleased to award the Distinguished Artist Award to Yungchen Lhamo. We are humbled by her service and commitment to the Kingston community, and look forward to honoring her at the award ceremony. I would like to thank the award’s fiscal sponsor Midtown Kingston Arts District, the committee and selection panel, and the Radio Kingston Tech Team for their support. I welcome all to join us at the awards!”
Yungchen Lhamo is an internationally acclaimed Tibetan singer originally from Lhasa. In 1989 Yungchen left Tibet for Dharamsala, India to pursue her dreams. She later moved to Australia, where she began to sing prayers of meditation that inspired her first album Tibetan Prayer, which won the Australian Recording Industry Award (ARIA) for Best World Music Album in 1995. Yungchen was then signed to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records label on which she released three more albums: Tibet, Tibet (1996), Coming Home (1998), and Ama, featuring songs with Annie Lennox and Joy Askew (2006).
In 2013, Yungchen moved from NYC to Kingston, where she began to volunteer with and be inspired by the community of people at Chiz’s Heart Street, which greatly inspired her musical work. That year, she released Tayatha, a collaborative album with Russian classical pianist Anton Batagov. Yungchen’s album Awakening was released in 2022, using her extraordinary voice and talents to explore themes of compassion-based spirituality while living with the stresses of modern-day life so sharply experienced by everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her seventh album, One Drop of Kindness was released by Real World Records in September 2023. Yungchen is the founder of One Drop of Kindness Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization to help distressed communities in the U.S. and other countries through direct aid, charitable giving, community outreach, and the power of inspirational music and song.
“We on the commission are proud to present this award to Yungchen,” said Kingston Arts Commission Chair Lisa B. Kelley. “Her name aptly translates as ‘Goddess of Melody.’ She has performed benefit concerts at Old Dutch Church in Kingston over the years, participated in the annual Dream Festival, and contributed her kindness to our Kingston community in other quiet ways. Congratulations to Yungchen on her distinguished career and great care for our community.”
The Distinguished Artist Award ceremony will be held on Thursday, June 25, 2026, at 5:30pm in Council Chambers at Kingston City Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
The 2026 Distinguished Artist Award selection panel included Cesar Castro, Community Engagement Coordinator at the Center of Photography at Woodstock, Laura Kandel, Co-Founder and Executive Director of HUDSY, Rob Sweeney, Architectural Historian, and Cassandra Taylor, English Language Arts Professor at Bard MAT. The Distinguished Artist Award committee co-chairs are Dina Suggs, Ulster County Chief Diversity Officer, and Cicily Wilson, Assistant Dean of Civic Engagement and Director of Community Partnerships at Bard College, Center for Civic Engagement.
About the Distinguished Artist Award
The Distinguished Artist Award was established in 2018 through partnership with Mayor Steve Noble and the Kingston Arts Commission. The Distinguished Artist Award seeks to reward the achievements of local artists and creative thinkers.
The Distinguished Artist Award was presented to artists Peter Wetzler and Julie Hedrick in 2018, to musician Lara Hope in 2020, to performance artist Jaguar Mary X in 2022, and artist/illustrator Matthew Pleva in 2024.
