News Item, , Gütersloh: NEUE STIMMEN 2009: More than 1,000 applicants, over a third of them from Germany

The first preliminary round audition of Bertelsmann Stiftung’s international singing competition will be held in Florence

Germany accounts for a good third of the applicants for NEUE STIMMEN: 139 singers will compete in Berlin, 133 in Düsseldorf and 94 in Munich. We have received 101 entries for the preliminary round auditions in Yokosuko, 120 for Beijing, 68 for Buenos Aires and 61 for New York – where auditions will be held this year at the Metropolitan Opera. The preliminary rounds in all 23 cities will be finished by the end of August.

During both the preliminary rounds and the finals, the international jury gives equal consideration to technical skill, musical presentation, voice quality, and artistic personality and presence. The finals of the NEUE STIMMEN competition will take place in Gütersloh from October 25 to 31, 2009. Serving as chairman of the jury is Dominique Meyer, currently general director of the Théâtre des Champs Élysées and designated director of the Vienna State Opera. Approximately 45 finalists will be competing for a first prize of €15,000. The competition is being held in cooperation with the broadcasting station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).

In addition to Dominique Meyer, Brian Dickie, general director of Chicago Opera Theater and director of the preliminary round auditions, and Gustav Kuhn, conductor and director of the Tyrolean Festival Erl, the jury includes Kammersänger Francisco Araíza, professor at the College of Music and the Performing Arts in Stuttgart; Kammersänger Siegfried Jerusalem, director of the Nuremberg-Augsburg School of Music; Jürgen Kesting, music critic and author; Bernd Loebe, general director of the Frankfurt Opera; Nicholas Payne, director of Opera Europa, the association of opera houses and opera festivals in Europe; Kammersängerin Anja Silja and Evamaria Wieser, artistic director of the Salzburg Festival.

Bertelsmann Stiftung's singing competition is recognized as one of the most important international opportunities for young opera singers. NEUE STIMMEN has paved the way to a national or international career for many young artists, including Vesselina Kasarova, René Pape, Nathalie Stutzmann, Noemi Nadelmann, Roman Trekel, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Melanie Diener, Dietrich Henschel, Angelika Kirchschlager, Franco Fagioli and Maxim Mironov. The winner of the 2007 competition, Marina Rebeka of Latvia, is currently singing at La Scala in Milan, and she is scheduled to give her debut performance at the Salzburg Festival this summer.

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