Here are the finalists!
8 June 2024
The competition jury has selected six singers for the final on Wednesday 12 June: Josipa Bilić, Aksel Daveyan, Junho Hwang, Justyna Khil, Kathrin Lorenzen ja Jingjing Xu.
Six singers have made it to the final of the Mirjam Helin competition:
- Josipa Bilić, soprano, Croatia
- Aksel Daveyan, baritone, Armenia
- Junho Hwang, tenor, South Korea
- Justyna Khil, soprano, Poland
- Kathrin Lorenzen, soprano, Germany
- Jingjing Xu, mezzo-soprano, China
The 2024 jury members are Soile Isokoski (chair), Luca Pisaroni, Keval Shah, Bo Skovhus, Randi Stene, and Dawn Upshaw.
“The jury was remarkably unanimous in their finalist selections,” says Isokoski. “The semifinal was excellent: we are looking forward to a splendid final!”
The final will take place in the Musiikkitalo concert hall on Wednesday 12 June at 18:30 (UTC+02:00). The repertoire of each contestant contains two works with orchestral accompaniment, of which at least one must be an opera, oratorio, cantata or concert aria. In the final, the singers will be accompanied by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Sir Mark Elder.
The winner will be awarded €50,000, the runner-up €40,000, the third €30,000 and the remaining three finalists €10,000 each. A prize of €5,000 will be awarded for the best performance of a Finnish song by a singer whose native language is neither Finnish nor Swedish. Furthermore, a prize of €5,000 will be awarded for the best performance of a Lied. The total sum of prizes amounts to €190,000. The press and student juries will also announce their favourites at the end of the final.