Pisaroni’s recent engagements include his debut as Dr. Dulcamara in Donizetti’s Elisir d’Amore at Seattle Opera, the Four Villains in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Teatro alla Scala, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at San Francisco Opera, Alidoro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at Opéra National de Paris and Enrico VIII in Anna Bolena at Opernhaus Zürich.

The other jury members are lied pianist Keval Shah, baritone Bo Skovhus, mezzo soprano and opera chief Randi Stene, and soprano Dawn Upshaw. The jury is chaired by soprano Soile Isokoski.

Soile Isokoski, chair of the Mirjam Helin competition jury, is delighted with the high skill level of applicants. According to Isokoski, it is difficult to rank people in the context of art. “The first selection criterion is, of course, the applicant’s voice, but that is only the basis. The goal is for the singer to sing the music as it is written, but also to go beyond the notes – that is, to really live the song and to have knowledge of different genres. You do not sing Verdi and Mozartin the same manner”, Isokoski points out.

“It was very difficult to whittle down the number of singers to be selected for the competition, because of the huge number of promising singers of high quality”, says Isokoski.

The nationality most represented in the preliminary round is the South Koreans, with thirteen competitors. As many as four Finnish singers made it to the competition. They are Iris Candelaria, Emma Mustaniemi, Johannes Pessi and Heta Sammalisto.

Singers to be featured in the competition come from countries such as Armenia, Germany, Costa Rica, China, the United States, Croatia and Australia. A total of 25 nationalities are represented.

Laureates of the competition will be performing in Finland in the summer of 2024 as well as in 2025 as follows:

• 11 July 2024 Organ Night and Aria festival (Espoo, Finland)
• 26 July 2024 Joroinen Music Festival (Joroinen, Finland)
• 5 February 2025 Kuopio Symphony Orchestra (Kuopio, Finland)
• 24 April 2025 Oulu Sinfonia (Oulu, Finland)

Singers selected for the preliminary round in 2024:

• Judith Ankoué, soprano, FR
• Marko Antolković, countertenor, HR
• Josipa Bilić, soprano, HR
• Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, mezzo, FR
• Oliver Boyd, baritone, AU
• Jingwen Cai, mezzo, CN
• Iris Candelaria, soprano, FI
• Eunil Cho, soprano, KR
• Aksel Daveyan, baritone, AM
• Kara Dugan, mezzo, US
• Valerie Eickhoff, mezzo, DE
• Filip Filipović, tenor, HR
• Ricardo Garcia, tenor, US
• Renáta Gebe-Fügi, soprano, HU
• ByeongMin Gil, bass-baritone, KR
• Valeria Girardello, mezzo, IT
• Kevin Godínez, baritone, CR
• Clarice Granado, soprano, SE
• Hyunju Ha, soprano, KR
• Hedvig Haugerud, soprano, NO
• Lovisa Huledal, mezzo, SE
• Junho Hwang, tenor, KR
• Marie Sofie Jacob, soprano, DE
• Lubov Karetnikova, soprano, US
• Justyna Khil, soprano, PL
• Grace Gayoung Kim, mezzo, KR
• Jongwoo Kim, tenor, KR
• Gabriele Kupsyte, mezzo, LT
• Maciej Kwaśnikowski, tenor, PL
• Aaron Eunhyuk Lee, bass, KR
• Hyejin Lee, soprano, KR
• Jonghwan Lee, baritone, KR
• Sanghun Lee, baritone, KR
• Logan Lopez Gonzalez, countertenor, BE
• Kathrin Lorenzen, soprano, DE
• Magdalena Lucjan, soprano, PL
• Marta Kristin Friðriksdóttir, soprano, IS
• Beatriz Miranda, mezzo, PT
• Alexandria Moon, mezzo, GB
• Emma Mustaniemi, soprano, FI
• Amber Norelai, soprano, VE
• Euiyoung Oh, tenor, KR
• Nuri Park, soprano, KR
• Samueol Park, baritone, KR
• Johannes Pessi, baritone, FI
• Karoline Podolak, soprano, CA
• Maggie Reneé, mezzo, US
• Gabriel Rollinson, baritone, DE
• Heta Sammalisto, soprano, FI
• Ekaterina Spivakovskaia, soprano, RU
• Volodymyr Tyshkov, bass, UA
• Emilia Utter, soprano, SE
• Alexander Voronov, bass, RU
• Maria Warenberg, mezzo, NL
• Mengting Wu, soprano, CN
• Jingjing Xu, mezzo, CN

Update 31.5.2024: 56 out of 485 singers were selected to participate. 14 of them had to withdraw.

Baritone Stefan Astakhov was one of the winners of the 2019 Mirjam Helin competition. On the right, Hannu Lintu conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Photo: Heikki Tuuli.

In addition to countries where classical vocal music has traditionally been popular, entries were received from countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Peru, Mongolia, Lebanon, India, Hong Kong and Costa Rica.

The competition director Päivi Loponen-Kyrönseppä is happy about the popularity of the competition:

“The high number of applicants speaks of the global appeal of the Mirjam Helin competition. Singing competitions still have their place in the world of music. Participating in a competition provides young talents with an opportunity to present themselves simultaneously to the public, the media and a wide range of potential employers in the industry. At the same time, a multi-stage competition tests both the competence of contestants and their mental and physical endurance.”

During January, the pre-selection jury will select a maximum of 60 contestants for the preliminary round, which will take place from 3 to 6 June. The competition jury will then select 16–20 singers to go through to the semifinal. From the semifinalists, six will be selected for the final with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Sir Mark Elder, on 12 June. The members of the jury are the soprano Dawn Upshaw, the mezzo-soprano Randi Stene, the baritone Bo Skovhus, the pianist Keval Shah, and the chair of the jury, the soprano Soile Isokoski.

Päivi Loponen-Kyrönseppä has started work as Competition Director of the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition, organised by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. This is a new position at the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Loponen-Kyrönseppä holds a Master of Music degree and specialises in cultural management. She joins the Finnish Cultural Foundation after having worked at the Savoy Theatre, which is renowned for its profile in international programming.

Loponen-Kyrönseppä has worked as the director of the Savoy Theatre since 2013. Prior to that, she worked as the executive director of the Vantaa Orchestra, as the artistic director of the Lemi Music Festival, and as a music journalist for, for example, Helsingin Sanomat and Yleisradio. She also holds a Master’s degree in singing and is one of the founding members of the Opera Skaala company.

“Päivi Loponen-Kyrönseppä’s extensive networks in Finland and internationally, and her diverse experience in the field of music, provide an excellent basis for the development of the singing competition”, says Susanna Pettersson, CEO of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Organised by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the singing competition has been held every five years since 1984. In line with a new policy decision by the board of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the competition will, in the future, be held every three years. At the same time, separate categories for men and women will be abandoned.

“The Mirjam Helin Competition has an important place in Finnish music life. Holding the competition more frequently allows us to increase its visibility, especially internationally”, says the opera singer Soile Isokoski, who will chair the jury of the competition in 2024.

The ninth Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition will be held in Helsinki from 3 to 12 June 2024.