Second day of Stage I auditions

24 singers from 7 countries have been selected by the Jury for the second round of the 21ˢᵗ Ada Sari International Vocal Artistry Competition in Nowy Sącz. The largest group among them are Poles – 10 individuals – followed by the highest numbers from Ukraine (5), South Korea (4), China (2), and one each from Denmark, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. In the second round, we will hear the most sopranos – as many as 10 – along with 6 baritones, 5 mezzo-sopranos, 2 basses, and 1 tenor.

"Congratulations to those who advanced and I wish you victory" – said Małgorzata Walewska, chairwoman of the Jury. "To those who end their Competition today, I wanted to say that each of us jurors hears differently, it's worth talking with us to learn how we assessed you, what we paid attention to" – she emphasised. The young artists took up the encouragement and in crowds, after the verdict, queued up to speak with jurors. It's worth remembering that the Nowy Sącz Competition is one of the few in the world that gives participants the opportunity to talk with jurors, which allows them to gain advice and guidance.

"The level of the Competition is much higher than two years ago" –- said Marcin Habela, a juror. "When assessing singers, the most important thing for me was to find the meaning of the performed piece's message and to hear the structure of the work as a whole" – he stated. He added that the strongest and most essential aspect of participants must be technical skills. Without them, there's no possibility to even talk about performance and interpretation aspects.

"I'm very happy. Shock. I'm usually very critical of myself... And here I'm singing again tomorrow" – said Karolina Nosowska, one of the participants.

"For me, the adventure with this Competition has just ended. I participated for the third time and that's enough. One needs to come to terms with it. Soon I have another competition planned, this time in Austria" – explained Alicja Ciesielczuk, who didn't advance to the second round of the Competition.

"I noticed many new faces at the Competition, but I know many from previous editions and it's so nice to see how the young ones develop. What's wonderful is that many participants attach great importance to interpretation. Sometimes I forgot about scoring and just listened, I was immersed in listening" – said Małgorzata Walewska. – "The Competition is becoming more global, which is visible thanks to the international platform operavision.eu, where the final will be broadcast" – she emphasised.

In total, 46 participants from 12 countries took part in this year's edition of the Competition: Poland (19), South Korea (9), Ukraine (7), China (3), and one each from: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Germany and Norway. Traditionally, high female voices dominated the Competition - as many as 24 sopranos, and only 8 mezzo-sopranos. Among men, baritones prevailed - 8, but only 4 basses and 2 tenors.

The first stage lasted two days. Singers performed two pieces each, and their performance couldn't exceed ten minutes. Among these two pieces, a Mozart composition was obligatory, which in the jurors' opinion best shows the level of vocal technique. The second piece is the artist's choice from a list provided by the organisers.

The artists were assessed by an international Jury, which apart from Małgorzata Walewska – chairwoman, mezzo-soprano, vocal teacher, included: Michael Barobeck – Musicologist, dramaturge, and Casting Director at Graz Opera; Viviana Barrios – Head of Young Artists Relations, Casting at Deutsche Oper Berlin; Andrzej Dobber – Baritone singer, vocal pedagogue, and Artistic Director of the International Adam Didur Opera Singers' Competition; Marcin Habela – Baritone singer, professor of Voice at the Geneva University of Music and the University of Lugano, Artistic Advisor for the Tibor Varga Academy of Music in Sion, Switzerland, and the Anargyriou & Korgialenios School of Music Academy on Spetses, Greece; Eeva-Maria Kopp – ArtProducer at the Bregenz Festival, soprano singer and vocal pedagogue; Sebastian Ukena – Opera Director and Head of the Opera Studio at Komische Oper in Berlin; Claudia Visca – Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, soprano singer; Paweł Żółciński – Secretary of the Jury.

Tomorrow the second stage of the Competition begins, lasting just one day. Participants will perform 3 or 4 compositions selected by the Jury from the programme submitted by performers. We'll also learn the finalists of this year's Competition tomorrow, late evening.

All competition auditions are streamed at: adasari.pl. The Competition final will also be available on the international platform operavision.eu, offering free streams and reruns of the most famous operas from the world's greatest stages.

List of participants qualified for Stage II of the Competition:

1. CELIŃSKA Gabriela 
2. DO Jihoon 
3. GARBAS Artur 
4. GUNGE Clara 
5. HA Jaeyoung 
6. KIM Hyerim 
7. KOROLOVA Daria 
8. KOSTRZEWSKI Kacper 
9. KOWALSKI Wojciech 
10. LEE Jessica Seo Jin 
11. LI Zhengyu 
12. LIU Huigang 
13. MEDETOVA Mariya 
14. MYKULYAK Nazar 
15. NOSOWSKA Karolina 
16. NOWAK Wiktoria 
17. POLTORAK Mariana 
18. PRIEBE Małgorzata 
19. RACZKOWSKI Szymon 
20. RAPACZ Justyna 
21. SAULĪTE Etīna Emīlija 
22. SHAMANSKA Viktoriia 
23. TEPLA Nataliia 
24. WIKTORZAK Marta