Paris Opera Awards
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| Vocal competition | |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
| Owner | Association POA |
| Website |
www |
The Paris Opera Awards (POA) is an international contest for opera singers held in Paris, France. It is held under the patronage of the French representation at the European Commission and it starts on the web and ends with a final gala evening in Paris.
History
The first edition of POA was launched in March 2012. It allowed seventy-eight opera singers from South Africa, Albania, Germany, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine and Uruguay to participate. The fifty best results were reviewed by the panel of judges. The ten finalists (five women and five men) auditioned for the judges at the Salle Gaveau in Paris on January 4, 2013. Olivier Bellamy of Radio Classique was the host. The gala was dedicated to Maria Callas.
Objective
This award is an international competition for opera singers. It aims to help showcase opera singers to the professional opera world and to the Parisian public. The contest is open to all opera singers who are at least 18 years old. It is open to the following voice types: soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass. The winners are chosen by the judges at the finals gala in Paris which is open to the public. The most important prize that the competition confers is the fame that the award confers.
Organization
The contest includes several rounds: preliminary, semi-final and final. Following these events, the awards are chosen by the Grand Jury. The competition is organized annually by the Association POA located at 7, rue Albert-de-Lapparent in Paris in the 7th arrondissement and chaired by Alexandre Lomov, baritone, former intern at the Centre national d'insertion professionnelle des artistes lyriques (CNIPAL), graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Musical Academy Chigiana Siena under the tutelage of Carlo Bergonzi. The contest rules are posted on the website and translated into several languages.
Jury 2013 and 2014
The jury is composed of noted individuals of the music world: opera singers, conductors, directors opera houses and artistic agents. The grand jury for 2013 (first edition) was composed of three renowned artists from the world of opera: Sherrill Milnes, baritone (United States), Martina Arroyo, soprano (United States) and Daniel Lipton, conductor (Canada). After the finals concert they selected six winners, three women and three men. There was also an audience award given and a special prize in honor of Maria Callas was given by the organizers.
The panel of judges for the 2014 contest consisted of:
- Richard Bonynge, (Australian conductor, president of jury)
- Martina Franck, (from Germany, artistic director at Cologne Opera)
- Ève Ruggiéri, (producer, TV and radio host, from France)
- Maurice Xiberras, managing director at the Opéra de Marseille (France)
- Germinal Hilbert, founder and chairman of Hilbert Artists Management (Germany)
- Dominique Riber, artistic chief officer and artists manager at Opéra et Concert in Paris (France)
- Christian Schirm, director of The Atelier Lyrique of Opéra national de Paris (France)
- Vincent Monteil, director of The Opera Studio at the Opéra national du Rhin (France)
- Sophie Duffaut, artistic administrator at Chorégies d'Orange festival (France)
Winners
2013
- Category: Women
- Mary-Jean O'Doherty, coloratura soprano, Australia[1] - first prize
- Jennifer O'Loughlin, coloratura soprano, USA – 2nd prize
- Ulyana Aleksyuk, coloratura soprano, Ukraine 3rd prize
- Category: Men
- Julien Dran, tenor, France – first prize
- Dmitry Lavrov, baritone, Russia – 2nd prize
- Nam Kyu Choung, tenor, South Korea – 3rd prize
- Maria Callas Award: Jennifer O'Loughlin
- Audience Award: Jennifer O'Loughlin
2014
- Category: Women
- Daria Terekhova, coloratura soprano, Russia – first prize
- Marina Nachkebiya, coloratura soprano, Georgia – 2nd prize
- Leonie Renaud, coloratura soprano, Switzerland – 3rd prize
- Category: Men
- Pietro di Bianco, bass-baritone-, Italy – first prize
- Xiaohan Zhai, bass-baritone, China – 2nd prize
- Sam Roberts-Smith, baritone, Australia – 3rd prize
- Best Performance Award: Sam Roberts-Smith
- Audience Award: Daria Terekhova
References
- ↑ Mary-Jean O'Doherty, Paris Opera Awards