Countertenor Alexander Chance wins International Handel Singing Competition

Countertenor Alexander Chance has won this year’s International Handel Singing Competition following last Friday’s final at London’s St George’s Church, earning a cash prize of £5,000 as well as the Audience Prize of £300.

As well as the press and promoter coverage associated with the competition, Chance also gets the opportunity to work with a professional baroque orchestra. Chinese countertenor Meili Li won second prize. Originally selected for the final of the 2020 competition which was cancelled due to the Covid Pandemic, Li receives a cash prize of £2,000 this year.

The competition is held as part of the London Handel Festival. Festival director, Gregory Batsleer, said: ‘the Handel Singing Competition remains the jewel in the crown of the London Handel Festival. With over 150 applicants from all over the world, this year’s competition was one of the hardest to judge to date. I have no doubt that all finalists will go on to have careers of great distinction.’

Born in London in 1992, Chance was a choral scholar at New College, Oxford. He is the first countertenor to win the competition’s first prize since it was established in 2002.

All competitors must submit all-Handel programmes at each stage. Following a preliminary digital round and an initial live round at London’s Craxton Studios, the competition’s semi-final stage saw singers accompanied by harpsichord, and, in the final stage, accompanied by the London Handel Orchestra, conducted by musical director Laurence Cummings.

Cummings commented: ‘It was a real joy to work with all of our finalists and I look forward to watching all of their careers bloom…. Huge congratulations to Alexander Chance. The judges were particularly impressed with his expressive and committed singing.’

You can find out more about the International Handel Singing Competition here.

You can find out more about Alexander Chance here.