Press
42nd International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition
South Korean Baritone wins in Latvia
On Sunday evening, three young men won the three main prizes at the finals of the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in the Latvian town of Jurmala. The 1st prize went to the South Korean baritone Jungrae Noah Kim, the 2nd prize to tenor Daniel O'Hearn from the US and 3rd prize to the Canadian tenor Matthew Cairns. At the final gala concert, the singers were accompanied by the Jurmala Festival Orchestra under the direction of Mārtiņš Ozoliņš.
The baritone Thando Zwane from Swaziland won the hearts of the audience and the Audience Award. Third-placed Matthew Cairns also won the Prize of the International Media Jury. Further prizes and numerous engagements were awarded.
Once again, young opera singers hoping for a great career met with international opera and casting directors looking for new talent. This year, nineparticipants won engagements or coaching sessions at renowned opera houses such as Covent Garden London, Metropolitan Opera New York, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Dutch National Opera Amsterdam. The Theater Bonn and the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden were new to the opera jury this year.
The international nature of the competition is not only reflected in the jury, but also in the young participants from many different nations:
There were 51 qualifying rounds worldwide in the run-up to the competition, in which around 800 singers took part. 121 of them from a total of 39 nations came to Jurmala for the finale week, 52 made it to the semi-finals. Nine of them competed in the final gala concert for the three main prizes and several special prizes. 20 participants came from South Korea, which was once again the most strongly represented nation this year. Ukraine followed in second place with 15 young talents. China was also strongly represented with ten and the USA with nine singers.
The fact that not only singers from the final round received prizes, but also some from the semi-final rounds were able to return home with engagements, shows that participation in the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition is worthwhile. "This reflects the high level of quality that we have seen in previous years," explained the organisers of the competition, Isabella Gabor and Holger Bleck. "We are delighted for the young artists who came to Jūrmala and faced the strict opera jury," said the organisers. "We would also like to thank the director of the Dzintari Concert Hall, Guntars Kirsis, and his professional team for the perfect organisation, which made the success of this competition possible. This is the third time we have enjoyed the hospitality of this beautiful Latvian city and the extremely attentive care of the Dzintari Concert Hall team."
The Latvian audience showed great interest. From the very first day, interested listeners flocked to the qualifying rounds in the Dzintari Concert Hall to hear the singers from all over the world perform. In addition, all qualifying rounds and the final gala concert, which was presented by Ints Teterovskis, were streamed, opening up additional audiences worldwide for the young talents.
Guntars Kirsis, Director of the Dzintari Concert Hall, is delighted that his team, together with that of the Belvedere Singing Competition, has been able to organise the finals in Jurmala for the third time: "For the organisers of professional music life in Latvia, it is a fantastic opportunity to meet the best up-and-coming soloists right here in Latvia. The competitors are performing at an incredibly high level, promising to be great additions to the genre of opera. It is truly an honour for me to serve on a jury with the world's top opera professionals."
Next year, the finals of the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition will take place in Switzerland at the Stadttheater Bern.
Award winners:
1st Prize: Jungrae Noah Kim, Baritone, South Korea
2nd Prize: Daniel O'Hearn, Tenor, USA
3rd Prize: Matthew Cairns, Tenor, Canada
Prize of the International Media Jury: Matthew Cairns, Tenor, Canada
Audience Prize: Thando Zwane, Baritone, Swaziland
Hans Gabor Prize: JING YI YU, Soprano, China (Semifinalist)
Jane Carty Memorial Prize, donated by her friends and awarded by colleagues in memory of the long-standing media juror in the Belvedere Singing Competition, for a singer, 25 years old or younger, who shows real potential.
Etīna Saulīte, Soprano, Lettland
Engagements and Coaching Sessions:
Royal Opera House Covent Garden: Janice van Rooy, Soprano, Namibia (Semifinalist)
Dutch National Opera Amsterdam: Singing lessons with Rosemary Joshua: Etīna Saulīte, Sopran, Latvia
The Metropolitan Opera New York, Lindemann Young Artist Development Program & Laffont Competition for an audition at Metropolitan Opera House: Michael Mensah, Bass, Ghana (Semifinalist)
Dzintari Concert Hall Jurmala: Etīna Saulīte, Soprano, Latvia | Adrian Janus, Baritone/Bass, Poland (Semifinalist)
Stadttheater Bern: Nicole Chirka, Mezzo-Soprano/Alto, Ukraine (Semifinalist)
Deutsche Oper Berlin: Teona Todua, Soprano, Ukraine | Volodymyr Morozov, Bass, Ukraine (Semifinalist)
Theater Bonn: Andrew Hyunjung Kim, Tenor, South Korea (Semifinalist)
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden: Thando Zwane, Baritone, Swaziland
About the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition
The opera competition for young singers was founded in 1982 by the then director of the Vienna Chamber Opera, Hans Gabor. His idea was to offer young artists a springboard for an international opera career. To this day, the jury consists exclusively of opera and casting directors from renowned opera houses. In this way, many talents such as Lise Davidsen, Angela Gheorghiu, Aigul Akhmetshina, Joshua Lovell, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Matthias Rexroth and Pretty Yende have been discovered over the decades.
Photos:
Belvedere 1: The three winners (Left to right: Matthew Cairns, Jungrae Noah Kim, Daniel O’Hearn)
Belvedere 2: 1st Prize Winner Jungrae Noah Kim
Belvedere 3: The nine finalists
Photo credit: Dzintari Concert Hall – Pauls Zvirbulis
Monika Unegg
Press Officer
International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition
www.belvedere-competition.com
unegg@belvedere-competition.com
T: +436642436797
39th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition. Finals set to take place at the Theater Erfurt in June 2021
The preparations are in full swing – the finale week of the 39th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition will take place from 20th to 27thJune 2021 at the Theater Erfurt in Germany. All Singers who qualified in 2020 or will qualify in 2021 will participate. The 2021 qualifying rounds have already started.
The 39th Belvedere Singing Competition which already began in 2020 and was interrupted due to the pandemic will continue in 2021. The final rounds originally planned for June 2020 in Jurmala in Latvia will now take place in the German city of Erfurt.
Isabella Gabor and Holger Bleck have been managing the Belvedere Singing Competition together since 1999 and are excited about the current prospects. “We are delighted that Guy Montavon, General Director of the Theater Erfurt, has invited us to come to Germany. Guy Montavon has been a juror of the Belvedere Competition for years. We highly appreciate his invitation, especially during these trying times.”
“The Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition is one of the few top-class competitions in its field. Through high standards and a renowned jury, the Competition functions as a steppingstone for young talents to launch their careers. We, the Theater Erfurt, are delighted to be this year’s hosts. The fact that the Competition is one of the first to take place again this year is a silver lining on the horizon” says Mr. Montavon.
Because of last year’s circumstances special rules for this year’s Competition have been agreed on. All singers who qualified in 2020 will automatically compete at the final rounds in Erfurt, even if they are past the age limit this year. In 2020, 594 candidates applied for participating. The Belvedere Competition hosted qualifying rounds in 25 of, originally planned, 70 cities. 59 singers could already qualify last year for the final rounds. Information concerning the terms 2021 will be found at the Competition’s website www.belvedere-competition.com.
“We are very happy that we can continue to offer young people the opportunity of an international opera career. This year, we have again invited opera and casting directors of renowned opera houses around the world,” say the organisers. This includes the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, the Sächsische Staatsoper – Semperoper, The Israeli Opera Tel-Aviv-Yafo, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York and the Bolshoi Theatre in Russia among others.
The finals of the 38th International Belvedere Competition took place in July 2019 in the Austrian city of Villach and hosted by the Carinthian Summer Music Festival, during which eight prizes and ten engagements to opera houses and festivals have been awarded.
Monika Unegg
Press Officer
International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition
T +43 664 2436797
unegg@belvedere-competition.comm
www.belvedere-competition.com
International Belvedere Singing Competition: Finals 2020 in Jurmala cancelled
The final rounds and the finals of this year's International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition have to be cancelled. All singers who have already qualified will automatically be in the final rounds next year.
"We are very sorry. We tried until the very end to make the finale week happen. However, the worldwide effects of the pandemic make it impossible to hold a final event and award the prize winners this year," explain organisers Isabella Gabor and Holger Bleck. Initially, it seemed that a postponement to autumn was possible, but now our partners in the Latvian city of Jurmala, where the finals should have taken place, have finally cancelled the event.Therefore, the qualification rounds still planned for this year were stopped and postponed to next year – with the exception of the qualifying rounds on 21st August in Irkutsk (Russia), on 4th September in Varazdin (Croatia), on 13th September in Zurich (Switzerland) and on 23rd September in Madrid (Spain). All these auditions will count towards the final rounds in 2021. So far 201 out of 619 already registered singers have participated in qualifying rounds in 20 (out of 70 planned) cities, 38 of them have already qualified. Their commitment has not been in vain; they now have the chance to prove their skills in the 2021 final rounds and win cash prizes and attractive engagements at the world's most important opera houses. Singers whose qualifying rounds could not take place may decide whether their applications remain valid for 2021 or whether they would like to have their fees refunded.
The International Belvedere Competition will be continued next year. "We want to continue to offer young people the chance of an international opera career," say the organisers. Negotiations for a venue for the final rounds and the 2021 finals are already under way. Current developments will be announced as soon as possible on the homepage www.belvedere-competition.com.
Monika Unegg
Press Officer
International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition
T +43 664 2436797
unegg@belvedere-competition.comm
www.belvedere-competition.com
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Finals of the 2020 Belvedere Singing Competition in Latvia
For the second time after 2018, the finals of the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition will be held in the Latvian city Jurmala. The Gala Concert, during which the winners will be chosen, will take place at the Dzintari Concert Hall on 6th June 2020. Online applications are now open.
As the 38th Belvedere Singing Competition has just successfully wrapped, the preparations for the next one have already begun. Date and location for the finals have been chosen. “We are very happy, that the director of the Dzintari Concert Hall, Guntars Ķirsis, has again invited us to come to the Baltic Sea. We fondly remember the 2018 finals, the hospitality and the perfect organisation”, say Isabella Gabor and Holger Bleck, general managers of the renowned competition for opera singing.Guntars Kirsis, artistic director of Dzintari Concert Hall: “I highly appreciate the opportunity to host the Belvedere Competition Finals in Dzintari Concert Hall for the second time already. I consider this not only to be an appreciation of the work of our team, but also the view which the organisers Isabella Gabor and Holger Bleck, the prestigious jury and the members of the competition have on Latvia as a country, where music occupies a special place. The Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing Competition for opera singers continues to unveil talent, and I believe that the participation of singers in the competition and the special atmosphere at Dzintari Concert Hall will provide the young talents with an important starting point for their future professional work.”
Around 1.000 contestants are again expected worldwide to enter the 39th Belvedere Singing Competition. 150 to 160 of them will qualify for the final rounds. This year 1.061 singers competed in 71 qualifying rounds, 151 of them made it to the finals in the Austrian city Villach, where the Competition’s brilliant grand finale was organised in cooperation with the “Carinthian Summer Music Festival”. In total, eight prizes were awarded, and several young talents received engagements for opera houses and festivals or were invited to auditions.
Online registration on the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition website is now open. The qualification rounds will take place in more than 70 cities worldwide from early February to mid-May.
Monika Unegg
Press Officer
International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition
T +43 664 2436797
unegg@belvedere-competition.comm
www.belvedere-competition.com
21-jährige Russin gewinnt den 38. Belvedere-Gesangswettbewerb
Die erst 21 Jahre alte Valeriia Savinskaia aus Russland gewinnt den ersten Preis und den Preis der internationalen Medienjury beim 38. Internationalen Hans Gabor Belvedere Gesangwettbewerb. Platz zwei geht an Boikhutso Owen Metsileng aus Südafrika, den dritten Preis bekam Slávka Zámečníková aus der Slowakei. Vier weitere Preise und neun Engagements an internationalen Opernhäusern oder bei Festivals wurden vergeben.
Das Finale fand in diesem Jahr in der österreichischen Stadt Villach und erstmals im Rahmen eines großen Musikfestivals statt. Denn das Gala-Konzert, bei dem die Preisträger ermittelt wurden, war gleichzeitig das Eröffnungskonzerts des Carinthischen Sommers, der heuer sein 50-Jahr-Jubiläum feiert. 15 junge Talente aus elf Ländern standen im Finale. Insgesamt hatten sich 1.110 Sängerinnen und Sänger in 71 Qualifikationsrunden um die Finalplätze beworben. 151 hatten es nach Villach geschafft, wo sie sich der internationalen Opernjury stellten.Wie schon im Vorjahr war das Teilnehmerfeld aus Südkorea sehr groß, aber auch aus Russland und der Ukraine sowie aus Südafrika kamen zahlreiche Sängerinnen und Sänger. Waren im Vorjahr mehrheitlich Tenöre und Baritone im Finale, so befanden sich diesmal die Frauen in der Überzahl. Sechs Sopranistinnen und drei Mezzosopranistinnen/Altistinnen standen im feierlichen Gala-Konzert, bei dem sie vom Kärntner Sinfonieorchester unter der Leitung von Alexander Joel begleitet wurden, drei Baritonen und drei Tenören gegenüber.
„Der diesjährige Bewerb hat gezeigt, dass das Interesse junger Menschen an einer Opernkarriere ungebrochen ist“, erklärten Isabella Gabor und Holger Bleck, die Organisatoren des Wettbewerbs. „Herzlich bedanken möchten wir uns bei der Stadt Villach. Ihre Unterstützung machte es möglich, das Finale dieses beliebten und renommierten Wettbewerbs für Operngesang diesmal in Kärnten beim 50-Jahr-Jubiläum des Carinthischen Sommers durchzuführen“.
1. Preis und Preis der internationalen Medienjury: Valeriia Savinskaia, Sopran, Russland
2. Preis und Hans Gabor Preis: Boikhutso Owen Metsileng, Tenor, Südafrika
3. Preis: Slávka Zámečníková, Sopran, Slowakei
Publikumspreis: Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Sopran, Südafrika
Wil Keune Preis für einen Sänger/eine Sängerin mit großem Potenzial, geboren nach 1993: Egor Zhuravskii, Tenor, Russland
CS Rising Star 2019: Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
Engagements:
Deutsche Oper Berlin (D): Valeriia Savinskaia
Operngala der Deutschen AIDS-Stiftung (D): Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
Theater Dortmund (D): Valeriia Savinskaia
Theater Erfurt (D): Katia Ledoux, Mezzosopran/Alt, Frankreich
JPYAP at Royal Opera House Covent Garden (GB): Boikhutso Owen Metsileng und Egor Zhuravskii
Teatro alla Scala, Mailand (I): Hugo Laporte, Bariton/Bass, Canada
Stadttheater Klagenfurt (A): Pablo Martinez, Tenor, Kolumbien
Dzintari Concert Hall, Jurmala (LV): Pablo Martinez
Bild: Boikhutso Owen Metsileng, Valeriia Savinskaia and Slávka Zámečníková (von links)
Fotos: Ferdinand Neumüller, Abdruck honorarfrei
Monika Unegg
Press Officer
International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition
T +43 664 2436797
unegg@belvedere-competition.com
www.belvedere-competition.com
38th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition will start off the Carinthian Summer Music Festival 2019
Two important cultural events will form a symbiosis this year. On 7 July, the finals concert of the renowned International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition will open the most important music festival of Austria’s state of Carinthia, the Carinthian Summer Music Festival, which is also celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. Qualification rounds for the 38th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition kick off on 5th of March in Toronto, Canada. Applications are possible as from 1 February.
1.125 participants from 78 countries competed last year in over 70 qualifying rounds around the world for the finals in the Latvian city Jurmala. In the end, 147 contestants won the chance to present their talent to an international jury comprised of representatives of the world’s most renowned opera houses. This is why the competition is so exceptional: The young singers are exclusively judged by artistic, opera and casting directors, who offer engagements to finalists every year. In 2018 renowned opera houses and festivals engaged 9 singers. This makes this competition so popular: it has already catapulted many young talents to international stardom.
Stars like Angela Gheorghiu, Elīna Garanča, Marina Mescheriakova, Ildikó Raimondi, Joseph Calleja, Antonio Poli, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Pretty Yende, Lise Davidsen or Aigul Akhmetshina, who debuted in Austria at the Carinthian Summer Music Festival 2018 and wowed as Carmen at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, are only a few of the Competition’s participants and winners.
The first qualifying round will take place on 5 March in Toronto, Canada. In the subsequent weeks, among others, the Viennese State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London and the Teatro Real Madrid will follow. Again, around 70 qualification rounds on all continents are expected until the end of June.
Since 2013, the final rounds of the Belvedere Singing Competition, which was founded by Hans Gabor, long-standing director of the Vienna Chamber Opera (Wiener Kammeroper), are held in different cities. Thus far, these cities included Dusseldorf, Cape Town, Moscow, Amsterdam and last year Jurmala, and this year the Carinthian city Villach will be hosting.
The final rounds will start on 2 July in Villach, one of the event locations of the Carinthian Summer Festival, which offers around 40 concerts from diverse genres from classic to Jazz and Crossover at different locations in the state of Carinthia. The main locations are Villach and Ossiach, where this music festival was also founded in 1969.
“We are very happy to be able to combine these two important cultural events in one location this year. Thereby we offer the audience of the Carinthian Summer Music Festival the possibility to get to know this competition, which has already produced so many opera stars. And the finalists can experience the atmosphere of a festival”, say the competition’s managers Isabella Gabor and Holger Bleck, who is also the Carinthian Summer Music Festival’s director. The 12-15 young singers in the finals gala concert on 7 July will be accompanied by the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra (Kärntner Sinfonieorchester) under the musical direction of Alexander Joel.
Monika Unegg
Press Officer
International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition
T +43 664 2436797
unegg@belvedere-competition.comm
www.belvedere-competition.com