Liszt Academy announces II. Éva Marton International Singing Competition

The international competition organized by the Liszt Academy for the second occasion will be in four rounds. 18-32-year-old women and 18-35-year-old men can submit applications for the qualifying round on the competition website latest by 27 April 2016. As part of the application, candidates have to upload performances of one Baroque and one freely selected aria from another period, with piano or orchestral accompaniment. The competition secretariat will publish a notice on the decision of the jury headed by Éva Marton by 20 May 2016.

Competitors making it through to the live rounds in the autumn – only they have to pay the €150 entry fee – have to prove themselves with a performance of a Liszt song and a further seven arias. The pieces must be performed from memory, in the original key and original language, and in full version (including recitativo, cabaletta, stretta if appropriate). The venue for the rounds and final (open to the public) between 19-25 September 2016 will be the Liszt Academy. Due to live Internet streaming, the competition can be followed throughout Hungary and anywhere in the world. The gala is hosted by the Hungarian State Opera, with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Balázs Kocsár providing accompaniment in the final and gala. In addition to total prize money of €42,000, the very best competitors can also collect numerous special prizes including the Éva Marton Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, concert invitations and scholarships.

The jury headed by Éva Marton includes Hungarian and international celebrities from the world of opera such as Miguel Lerín, one of the most influential managers in European opera, tenor Vittorio Terranova, artistic director of the F. Tagliavini opera competition, Christina Scheppelmann, director of the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona, Prof. Sung Bin Kim, dean of the Faculty of Music of Daeshin University, Anatoli Goussev, professor of the La Scuola Musicale in Foro Buonaparte di Milano, Honghai Ma, Professor of the Central Conservatory of Music, Shanghai, Andrea Meláth, head of the Department of Vocal and Opera Studies, Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, and Szilveszter Ókovács, director of the Hungarian State Opera.

Details of the competition, which is organized with support from the government of Hungary application materials and the application form are available on the competition website at martoncompetition.hu.

The Liszt Academy announced the I. Éva Marton International Singing Competition on 4 December 2013. Women aged 18–32 and men aged 18–35 in any voice category could apply in the qualifier of the four-round competition via the martoncompetition.hu website or by post by 31 March 2014. Besides attracting considerable attention from China, Japan, South Korea, Romania, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine, there were also entries from many other parts of the world, from Iran to Nigeria, from the USA to Australia, from the Philippines to Israel, including 20 countries in Europe. The almost 150 applicants were evaluated on the basis of their submitted video material by a qualification jury chaired by Éva Marton. On the basis of their decision announced on 15 May 2014, a total of 77 entrants from 26 countries – including 11 Hungarians – went through to the rounds held between 15–21 September 2014. The eleven competitors making it through to the Final sang in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy, accompanied by the MÁV Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ádám  Medveczky. As a result of discussion that ran far into the night, the jury of eight members, all of them outstanding representatives of the international opera world, awarded the Grand Prix to 26-year-old mezzo-sopran Szilvia Vörös. 29-year-old Romanian baritone Alexandru Aghenie received first prize. The 30-year-old Ukrainian soprano, Tetiana Zhuravel, collected second prize and 28-year-old Polish soprano Marcelina Beucher won third prize. The audience could also vote for singers in the intermission of the Final. Thus, the Audience Prize went to the second prize winner, Tetiana Zhuravel. The Finals were streamed live and recorded in FullHD by Liszt Academy’s AVISO Studio in collaboration with Hungarian Television (MTVA). The Final, the awards ceremony and the webcast were created by creative producer Imre Szabó Stein, Director of Communications of the Liszt Academy. All multimedia material – including photos, audio recordings, the webcast and the 90-minute documentary film shot during the competition by Hungarian Television (MTVA) and commissioned by the Liszt Academy’s Communications Directorate – and details of the I. Éva Marton International Singing Competition are available at martoncompetition.hu.