Andrei Danilov, 34, was awarded the first prize with 30,000 euros and also the audience award at the finals of the 5th Éva Marton International Singing Competition at the Liszt Academy on Saturday evening. Russian bass Aleksei Kulagin took second place with €20,000, and Jeong Inho Korean bass won the €10,000 third prize, reported the official website of the event, martoncompetition.hu.
The final was held in the Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary, where competitors performed an aria in each of two rounds, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera. Furthermore, each singer introduced themselves in a short film and the audience could vote for their favorite contestant.
It was a final of extraordinary voices; we heard miracles,”
said Éva Marton in her evaluation following the performances. She added that despite the fact that we live in extraordinary times with a war raging in Hungary’s neighborhood, the competition was a place of balance and harmony.
In her speech delivered at the opening of the finals, Dr. Andrea Vigh, director of the Liszt Academy, stressed that
Éva Marton’s career and the competition itself have become examples of how talent combined with dedication and perseverance can change the world.
Both have opened new horizons in the art of opera singing as well as teaching and the promotion of outstanding young talents.
As reported by martoncompetition.hu, the winner was a Russian tenor, Andrei Danilov, who won the EUR 30,000 first prize and the audience award. He sang one aria each from Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and Richard Strauss’ The Knight of the Rose in the final. Danilov graduated from the Institute of Art at the Siberian University of Rights, Economics, and Management as an opera singer. In the course of his career, he has performed at the Kolobov Novaya Opera House in Moscow, the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, and the State Opera House in Cottbus; he became a member of the company of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and has won prizes in several competitions.
Aleksei Kulagin, the Russian bass who won the second prize, totaling EUR 20,000, performed an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta and one from Verdi’s Ernani. Kulagin, born in 1994, graduated from the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in 2019, and joined the Young Artist Program of the Bolshoi Theater. He has also won awards at various competitions.
Korean bass Jeong Inho, who won the EUR 10,000 third prize, performed arias from Verdi’s Macbeth and Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville. The singer, born in 1991, earned a Bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University College of Music in 2017, and is attending the Graduate School of Music at Seoul National University. In recent years, he has performed at the Bolshoi Theater, the Graz Opera House, the Seoul Arts Center, and held various concerts. He has received awards at several competitions.
The Liszt Academy’s 5th Éva Marton International Singing Competition, with total prizes amounting to more than EUR 80,000, was organized with the support of the Hungarian government and Hungarian oil and gas company MOL’s New Europe Foundation. The jury was chaired by Éva Marton and the other members of the panel were celebrated figures of international opera.
Featured photo: Facebook/Éva Marton International Singing Competition