Aria Borealis Bodø singing competition winners announced

The first Aria Borealis Bodø festival took place in the Arctic city of Bodø from 24 June to 2 July and included workshops, sessions and concerts as well as two rounds of the inaugural Aria Borealis Bodø International Competition for Early Music Singers.

The competition started several months before the festival, with over 120 young singers signing up for the initial digital rounds. Eight participants were selected to travel to Bodø to compete in two final rounds at the city’s Stormen Concert Hall with the Barokkanerne, Concerto Copenhagen, Finnish Baroque Orchestra and Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble.

The nine winners were chosen by the jury, the audience and the orchestras during competition rounds on 27 June and 2 July. Austrian soprano Johanna Rosa Falkinger received the jury’s first prize in the first competition round, and British tenor/haute-contre Kieran White won the first prize in the second round.

Rasmus Adrian, CEO at Stormen Konserthus and jury chairman of the Aria Borealis Bodø International Competition for Early Music Singers said: ‘This has been about working together and creating musical meetings enabling both the artists and musical interpretations to develop, and it is good to see that this is exactly what has happened. We have seen a great development among the singers through the competition rounds.’

 In the first round the jury, composed of British soprano Dame Emma Kirkby, harpsichordist and artistic director of Concerto Copenhagen Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Theater an der Wien director Stefan Herheim, Finnish soprano Tuuli Lindeberg and Swedish tenor Anders J Dahlin, awarded the following prizes:

• First prize was awarded to soprano Johanna Rosa Falkinger  from Austria
• Second prize was awarded to tenor Camilo Delgado Díaz from Colombia
• Third prize was awarded to baritone Jorge Armando Martínez Escutia from Mexico

In the second round the jury awarded the first prize to tenor/haute-contre Kieran White from the UK and the audience (both in-person and online) voted for Mexican baritone Jorge Armando Martínez Escutia as recipient of the Audience Prize.

The Barokkanerne, Concerto Copenhagen, Finnish Baroque Orchestra and Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble all awarded their orchestra prizes to Falkinger who said: ‘I am extremely honoured that every orchestra selected me as their favourite and also very grateful for the jury’s first prize in the first round, especially because it is thanks to jury members Tuuli Lindeberg and Emma Kirkby that I found my way into Early Music four years ago.’

You can find out more about the Aria Borealis Bodø festival and International Competition for Early Music Singers here.