Ada Sari 2025. Competition participants announced!
70 emerging singers from 18 countries, including Argentina, Austria, China, Montenegro, Georgia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine, the USA, and Italy, have qualified for the 21st Ada Sari International Vocal Artistry Competition in Nowy Sącz. The participants of the competition which will begin on May 17, 2025, were selected by a panel consisting of Małgorzata Walewska and Wojciech Maciejowski.
A record-breaking 210 artists from 40 countries applied to enter the competition, with submissions coming from six continents (Europe, Australia, South America, North America, Asia, and Africa).
Among the qualifiers, the largest group consists of Polish singers – 23 vocalists. The next largest group comes from Asia, including 10 artists from South Korea and 8 from China. As usual, sopranos make up the majority of participants, with 38 performing this year. Aside from that, 11 mezzo-sopranos, 4 tenors, 12 baritones, and 5 basses will compete for the laurels.
The current edition of the competition, which will run until 24 May, will traditionally take place in three stages. In the final round, the emerging singers will be accompanied by the Kraków Opera Orchestra under the direction of Marta Kluczyńska. The auditions will be held in the performance hall of the SOKÓŁ Małopolska Culture Centre in Nowy Sącz, Poland. The entire competition will be streamed on the event’s website: adasari.pl, and for the first time, the finals will be broadcast live on operavision.eu, which offers free opera streams and recordings from European theatres and other venues. The online platform is managed by Opera Europa, an association of theatres, festivals, and other opera-related institutions – Ada Sari International Vocal Artistry Competition has recently joined this group.
The singers will be evaluated by an international jury, consisting of: Małgorzata Walewska – President of the Jury, Michael Barobeck, Viviana Barrios, Andrzej Dobber, Marcin Habela, Eeva-Maria Kopp, Sebastian Ukena, Claudia Visca, and Paweł Żółciński – Secretary of the Jury.
The Ada Sari International Vocal Artistry Competition was initiated by Helena Łazarska and Antoni Malczak – the long-time director of the SOKÓŁ Małopolska Culture Centre. The competition has been held every two years without interruption since 1985. Since 2014, the role of artistic director and jury chair has been held by Małgorzata Walewska, a renowned and admired artist. It is worth recalling the competition stage in Nowy Sącz witnessed the debuts of a number of famous Polish singers, including Piotr Beczała, Andrzej Dobber, Rafał Bartmiński, Urszula Kryger, Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk, Tomasz Kuk, Andrzej Lampert, Gabriela Legun, Anna Lubańska, Arnold Rutkowski, and Paweł Skałuba.
The competition’s patron is Ada Sari (1886–1968) – one of the most outstanding figures in the history of vocal art, whose career developed through hard work and by following an unusual path: from dramatic soprano to coloratura soprano. She became a global phenomenon. Although she renounced family life, her human kindness and passion for music made her not only a brilliant pedagogue who nurtured generations of outstanding Polish singers but also a legend.
The names of the shortlisted singers is available here.