At this competition, judges don’t talk
mainThe Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition has reached its final stage.
Almost 500 applicants have been whittled down to eight.
The final will be conducted by Hannu Lintu.
The rule in the jury room is that judges must not discuss the merits of different candidates. Each judges sets down marks on paper and the marks are independently totted up.
The finalists are:
Teaa An, mezzo-soprano, South Korean
Stefan Astakhov, baritone, German
Olga Cheremnykh, soprano, Russian
Jussi Juola, bass, Finnish
Palesa Malieloa, soprano, South African
Bryan Murray, baritone, American
Rodrigo Sosa Dal Pozzo, countertenor, Italian, Venezuelan
Johanna Wallroth, soprano, Swedish
The members of the Jury vote independently and do not discuss the performances during the voting procedure. The chairman of the 2019 Jury is the Artistic Director of the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Jorma Silvasti. The members are Olaf Bär, Ben Heppner, Vesselina Kasarova, François Le Roux, Waltraud Meier, Deborah Polaski and Kiri Te Kanawa.
Funny: That’s a lot of the same jury than at the Concours Musical International de Montréal last year.
Heppner, Le Roux, and Te Kanawa were all in Montreal in 2018.
Wow, no pressure singing in front of that jury…
Perhaps they should come in for the Ferrier!
It does beg the question why, if they don’t talk to each other, they need a chairman.