As was the case for the last competition two years ago, Dominique Meyer, director of the Vienna State Opera, will serve as the jury chairman. The top three female and male singers will share €60,000 in prize money, including two €15,000 first-place prizes. A People's Choice Award will also be given. In addition, singers who are selected to participate in the finals will have the opportunity to meet with opera house managers, festival directors and agents, and each will receive individual feedback from the jury.
In addition, the young artists will have the opportunity to participate in the NEUE STIMMEN master classes (for opera music and lieder) and workshops, which the Bertelsmann Stiftung uses to provide the performers with ongoing support. They will also have the chance to participate in concerts held in Germany and other countries. Moreover, they could receive a scholarship from the International Opera Studio, part of Berlin's Staatsoper im Schiller Theater which is supported by the Liz Mohn Foundation for Culture and Music. The competition will conclude with a concert by the winners that will be held in Berlin in spring 2016.
Auditions in 26 cities around the globe
From May 7 to August 12, 2015, the promising young artists will be able to demonstrate their abilities at auditions in 26 cities around the globe: Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Chicago, Cluj-Napoca, Gothenburg, Kiev, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, Moscow, Munich, New York, Prague, Riga, Rome, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney, Tbilisi, Toronto, Vienna, Vilnius and Yokosuka. Brian Dickie, former director of the Chicago Opera Theater, and Evamaria Wieser, artistic advisor at the Lyric Opera Chicago and director of the Salzburg Festival's Young Singers Project, will be leading the auditions, which will be used to choose the 40 to 45 singers who will be invited to participate in the finals in Gütersloh.