It is a great pleasure to present the invited candidates to the 2013 Queen Sonja International Music Competition. We received approximately 200 applications to this year’s competition, from singers from over 45 nations. A national screening jury consisting of professor Svein Bjørkøy from the Norwegian Academy of Music, Toril Carlsen, soprano and vocal teacher at the Acadamy of Opera at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and Ingebjørg Kosmo, mezzosoprano and soloist at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, evaluated all the applications and through careful deliberation, decided which candidates to invite to Oslo in August. According to the screening jury, the level of this year’s applicants was exceptionally high. We want to thank all the singers who applied for this year’s competition, and we are proud to present the invited candidates to this year’s competition:

 

Armenia            Nina Minasian¹                    soprano

Australia             Emma Moore                       soprano

   Mary-Jean O'Doherty         soprano

   Katharine Tier                     mezzosoprano

Belarus                Oleg Tsibulko¹                     bass

Bulgaria            Vesselin Mihaylov                baritone

Canada                Sharleen Joynt                    soprano

China                   Zhentao Zhu                        baritone

Croatia                Kresimir  Strazanac            bassbaritone

Estonia                 Dara Savinova²                  mezzosoprano

Finland                Miina-Liisa Värelä             soprano
               
France                  Mélissa Petit                       soprano

Germany              Katharina Göres                 soprano

    Alexandra Steiner               soprano

Italy / US            Jessica Rose Cambio          soprano

Latvia                   Artjoms Safronovs              tenor

Mongolia             Enkhtaivan Chimed           baritone

Norway                Hamida Kristoffersen        soprano

    Camilla Vist                        soprano

    Caroline Christensen         soprano

Portugal             Susana Gaspar³                 soprano

Romania               Leonard Bernad                bass

    Iulia Maria Dan⁴               soprano

Russia                   Irina Churilova                  soprano

    Lilly Jørstad                       mezzosoprano

    Kristina Mkhitaryan         soprano

    Anastasia Prokofyeva        soprano

    Sergey Radchenko¹           tenor

Serbia                   Dusica Bijelic³                   soprano

South Africa        Dawid Kimberg³               baritone

South Korea        Hanna Kim                         soprano

    Hyung Woo Lee                  baritone

    MyungJoo Lee                    soprano

    Joseph Lim⁵                       baritone

    Kim Sung Hyun                 tenor

Sweden               Kristofer Lundin²             tenor

Turkey                  Kartal Karagedik               baritone

United States     Erik Anstine                        bass

   Brandon Cedel⁶                  bassbaritone

   Regina Davis                       mezzosoprano

   Heather Phillips                  soprano

  Andrew Stenson⁶                 tenor

 

1) Nominees from the Young Artist Program, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
2) Nominee from Opernhaus Zürich AG, International Opera Studio, Zürich
3) Nominees from the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, Royal Opera House, London
4) Nominee from the Young Artist Program, Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich
5) Nominee from The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago
6) Nominees from the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Metropolitan Opera, New York