The IX International Rimsky-Korsakov Young Opera Singers’ Competition will be held in Tikhvin, the great Russian composer’s native town. This time the competition – back following a six-year interval – will take place as part of an International Rimsky-Korsakov Opera Festival that began in October 2014 to mark one hundred and seventy years since the composer’s birth. This year, for the first time the competition will have two focal points – chamber music and opera performance.
Fifteen performers have been chosen for the chamber music section and forty-four competitors for opera from towns and cities throughout Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia and China.
The second round of the competition takes place on 28 and 29 January, while 31 January will see the final round and a gala concert of prize-winners.
The competition, founded in 1994, was dedicated by its organisers to the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov’s birth in recognition of his immense contribution to the development of St Petersburg’s professional music school and the vast influence his legacy has had and continues to exert on all subsequent professional musicians and music-lovers. The competition was run every two years by the Mariinsky Theatre and was one of the most important vocal competitions in Russia. The organisers aim to discover new and talented performers and to promote Russian opera and chamber music. In the course of the competition’s existence numerous talented singers have been prize-winners, among them Anna Netrebko, Irina Dzhioeva, Hibla Gerzmava, Olga Trifonova, Ildar Abdrazakov, Vasily Gerello and Daniil Shtoda. For many of these prize-winners, the competition has opened the doors to the world of opera. The jury has invariably been headed by such outstanding singers as Ileana Cotrubas, Elena Obraztsova, Makvala Kasrashvili, Nikolai Okhotnikov and Vladimir Atlantov.
This year the jury is to be headed by Larisa Gergieva (People’s Artist of Russia, Ukraine, the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and the Republic of South Ossetia, Honoured Artist of Poland and Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers and the National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Vladikavkaz). Sitting on the jury are Askar Abdrazakov (Moscow, Russia; People’s Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan), Grayr Khanedanian (St Petersburg, Russia; People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR and Professor at the St Petersburg State Conservatoire), Galina Gorchakova (St Petersburg, Russia; Honoured Artist of Russia and People’s Artist of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania), Larisa Jackson (Houston, USA; Artistic and General Director of the Orfeo international festival and competition, founder of the Schlern International Music Festival in Italy and Professor at the University of Houston, the State University of New York at Purchase and the University of Columbia), Zhun Shi Dze (Beijing, China; Senior Lecturer at the Beijing Conservatoire and Head of the Classical Vocals Department of the College of the Beijing Conservatoire), Susanna Martirosyan (Yerevan, Armenia; Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia, Professor and Head of the Classical Vocals Department of the Yerevan State Comitas Conservatoire) and Avaz Radjabov (Tashkent, Uzbekistan; People’s Artist of Uzbekistan, Professor at the Tashkent Conservatoire and soloist of the State Academic Navoi Grand Theatre).
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