Francesca Pia Vitale and Carles Pachon win NEUEN STIMMEN 2022

Francesca Pia Vitale from Italy and Carles Pachon from Spain have won the 2022 NEUE STIMMEN International Singing Competition. The two talents prevailed Thursday evening during an exceptional final concert, thus giving an enormous boost to their prospects for a successful career in the world of opera. Each of the two singers will also receive €15,000 in prize money.

During the grand finale in Gütersloh’s Stadthalle, seven women and four men demonstrated their vocal abilities, charisma and stage presence to the jury made up of acclaimed opera experts as well as other music-world professionals, audience members and media representatives. The top three women and top three men received prize money totaling €60,000. Additional prizes were awarded to the other final-round participants in honor of their achievements. In addition, Francesca Pia Vitale was the recipient of the Audience Prize. The finalists were accompanied by the Duisburg Philharmonic under the direction of English conductor Jonathan Darlington. The complete final concert and all individual arias are available on our YouTube channel. 

Women:

1^st Prize, €15,000: Francesca Pia Vitale (Italy) – soprano
2^nd Prize, €10,000: Eugénie Joneau (France) – mezzo-soprano
3^rd Prize, €5,000: Yewon Han (Korea) – soprano

Men:

1^st Prize, €15,000: Carles Pachon (Spain) – baritone
2^nd Prize, €10,000: Sakhiwe Mkosana (South Africa) – baritone
3^rd Prize, €5,000: Dumitru Mitu (Moldova) – tenor

Baritone Taehan Kim from South Korea is the winner of the Brian Dickie Young Talent Award, which includes prize money of €5,000. The jury also awarded two Talent Development Prizes for the first time: to tenor Zachary Rioux from Canada and soprano Parchiyachart Sitthidamrongkarn from Thailand. The Talent Development Prize is provided by the Mascarade Opera Studio and the Fondazione Mascarade in Florence. It comes with a stay of up to three weeks in Florence and the chance to become a permanent member of the studio there.

Liz Mohn, president of NEUEN STIMMEN and of the Liz Mohn Center, presented the prizes together with jury chairman Dominique Meyer, CEO of Milan’s La Scala opera house, and congratulated all the winners. "My sincerest best wishes to all of the singers who can be proud of having taken the top spots at NEUE STIMMEN 2022. They have everything one needs for a career in the world of opera. After receiving this award, they are now much closer to realizing their big dream of singing on the world’s stages," Mohn said. "Yet all of the talents we saw in the final round now have better professional prospects, thanks to their participation in the competition. This is particularly important for young singers in these difficult times."

Some 1,400 young singers from 67 countries applied to participate in the 2022 NEUE STIMMEN International Singing Competition. A total of 33 talents from 21 countries competed in the final round in Gütersloh. All of them thus received an excellent and perhaps one-time opportunity to convince international opera experts, artistic directors and music agents of their abilities. Even after they leave Gütersloh, all final-round participants will be able to benefit from NEUE STIMMEN’s well-established international network as they continue developing their careers.