Russian soprano wins the 7th Éva Marton International Singing Competition
Valentina Pravdina received the 30,000 euros first prize as well as the 5,000 euros special prize for the best performer of a Liszt song and the audience award at the Saturday evening final of the 7th Éva Marton International Singing Competition organized by the Liszt Academy.
Seokjun Kim Korean bass finished second winning 20,000 euros, while the third prize of 10,000 euros went to Armenian soprano Arpi Sinanyan. Éva Marton awarded her personal special prize of 10,000 euros to Georgian soprano Tata Razmadze.
The live rounds of the event started with 80 contestants on Monday with the preliminaries and continued on Thursday at the semi-finals. At the final held in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy, the qualified singers each performed two arias, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera under the baton of Kálmán Szennai. During intermissions, members of the audience voted for their favourite contestant.
The recipients of the competition's prestigious special awards will be announced at the Sunday evening gala held at the Hungarian State Opera, the event may be followed on live stream at martoncompetition.hu.
At the beginning of the final round, Dr Gábor Farkas, Rector of the Liszt Academy, delivered an opening address on behalf of the competition’s organiser and host institution. Welcoming Éva Marton, he praised her tireless commitment and admirable energy, with which she has devoted herself for many years to nurturing the next generation of singers. He also welcomed the distinguished members of the international jury, as well as Dr András Batta, former Rector of the university, who played an instrumental role in establishing the competition. Dr Farkas highlighted the great pride felt by Liszt Academy at having received a record 265 valid applications from all over the world for this year’s competition. He noted that the performances presented on stage over the past few days had demonstrated the exceptionally high artistic standard of this year’s field of contestants.
At the awards ceremony, Éva Marton expressed her gratitude to Rector Dr. Gábor Farkas, the jury, and the staff of the Liszt Academy, emphasizing what a wonderful achievement it is to bring an event of such high standard to life.
In the final round, first-prize winner, Liszt Special Prize winner and Audience Award winner Valentina Pravdina performed an aria from Verdi’s La traviata and one from Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus. Second-prize winner Kim Seokjun sang arias from Verdi’s Don Carlos and Weber’s Der Freischütz, while third-prize winner Arpi Sinanyan performed arias from Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and Boito’s Mefistofele. Tata Razmadze, recipient of the Éva Marton Special Prize with the support by the Hungarian Academy of Arts, performed an aria from Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and one from Catalani’s La Wally.
The prestigious international jury of the competition, held with the support of the Hungarian state, is chaired by Professor Emerita KS. Éva Marton and includes some of the most celebrated representatives of the Hungarian and international world of opera. The members are Miguel Lerín, one of the most influential art managers from Spain; Peter Mario Katona, casting director of the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) in London; Anatoli Goussev, a Ukrainian-born tenor and singer living and working in Italy; Italian tenor Vittorio Terranova; Turkish-German mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun, recipient of Éva Marton’s Special Prize at the 4th competition in 2021; Dmitry Vdovin, director of the youth opera programme at the Bolshoi Theater; as well as mezzo-soprano Andrea Meláth, head of the Singing Department of the Liszt Academy and Szilveszter Ókovács, General Director of the Hungarian State Opera.
