Winners announced for New Voices Singing Competition

The Northern Aldborough Festival has announced the winners of the inaugural edition of its New Voices Singing Competition. Mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw and pianist Kristina Yorgova won the competition’s top prize, the Seastock Trust Prize, worth £5,000 as well as the £500 Audience Prize.

The Yorkshire Music Future Fund second prize of £1,500, was awarded to soprano Alexandra Beason and pianist Ilan Kurtse. Finalists soprano Victoria Mulley and soprano Georgie Malcolm also performed alongside pianist Edward Campbell-Rowntree. As well as the competition’s cash prizes, first and second prize winners will also receive the opportunity to perform at festivals including Leeds Lieder, Newbury Spring Festival, Ryedale Festival, Music@Malling, as well as the Northern Aldborough Festival.   

Northern Aldborough Festival artistic director Robert Ogden said: ‘It was a tightly fought contest. Alongside the remarkable winners, I’d like to congratulate Victoria Mulley, who wowed the audience and judges with an a cappella performance of folk songs and her own compositions. Georgie Malcolm and Edward Campbell-Rowntree also impressed with a thoughtfully planned programme around the theme of making music, with a particularly beautiful performance of Schubert's song An Die Musik.’

The competition winners were chosen following a grand finale held on 21 June at St Andrew’s Church in Aldborough in north Yorkshire. The four finalists performed for a judging panel chaired by Sir Andrew Lawson-Tancred, chairman of the Northern Aldborough Festival which included soprano Dame Felicity Lott; artistic director of The Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn; director of Leeds Lieder, Joseph Middleton and artistic director of the Northern Aldborough Festival, Robert Ogden.

Lea Shaw graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a Masters in Opera and was a Scottish Opera emerging artist (2021-2023), while Bulgarian pianist Kristina Yorgova is a master student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was a winner at the National Svetoslav Obretenov Competition in Bulgaria.

Open to solo singers and ensembles aged 21-32 years old, the New Voices Singing Competition aims to celebrate classical vocalism in all its forms. The event was part of the programme for this year’s Northern Aldborough Festival, which ran from 15-24 June.