Northern Aldborough Festival launches 2025 New Voices Singing Competition

North Yorkshire’s Northern Aldborough Festival is set to present the third edition of its New Voices Singing Competition. Open to soloists, duos, and ensembles of up to eight participants, the competition welcomes entries until 18 April.

This year’s competitors will be judged by an adjudicating panel featuring baritone Sir Thomas Allen, conductor Dame Jane Glover and pianist Sholto Kynoch, led by the Northern Aldborough Festival’s artistic director, professional counter tenor, Robert Ogden.

Ogden said: ‘It’s set to be the biggest year for the nationwide New Voices Singing Competition, with cash prizes of £7,000 and high-profile performance opportunities to be won. In today’s landscape of music and arts funding cuts, we see this as a valuable platform to support young classical singers to launch their careers, as well as get in front of some of the industry’s leading and influential figures.’

Launched in 2023 to provide a platform for emerging talent in the face of funding cuts within the classical sector, the competition offers winners paid recital performance opportunities at Leeds Lieder and Harrogate International Festivals funded by the Yorkshire Music Future Fund, plus the chance to perform at next year’s Northern Aldborough Festival and a portion of the competition’s £7,000 prize fund.

Successful applicants to the competition will be notified in the spring before being invited to perform at a live semi-finals and grand final which take place during the 2025 Northern Aldborough Festival, which runs from 12 to 21 June.