Jingjing Xu wins the 2024 Mirjam Helin

Jingjing Xu, born in 1999, recently finished her Master’s degree at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, Montreal, where she studied with Annamaria Popescu, Michael McMahon, and Esther Gonthier. In 2022, she made her operatic debut in the title role of Handel’s Orlando with Opera McGill at the age of 22. In 2023, she won the Wirth Vocal Prize. In addition to opera, Xu has a passion for art songs. In the summer of 2023, she attended the Franz-Schubert-Institut. Her recent performances include Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle as the alto solo in a gala concert organised by Société d’art vocal de Montréal. Xu and Montreal-based pianist Christopher Knopp have been working together as a duo since 2021.

“The standard of the competitors has been extremely high, and the audience fantastic. Furthermore, there has been a good spirit among the jury. It has been a great pleasure to be part of the competition,” 

Soile Isokoski, Jury Chair

The €5,000 prize for the best Lied performance went to baritone Gabriel Rollinson for his “Among the Fuchsias” by Harry Burleigh. The €5,000 prize for the best performance of a Finnish song by a singer whose native language is neither Finnish nor Swedish went to soprano Renáta Gebe-Fügifor her interpretation of “Minä metsän polkuja kuljen” by Erkki Melartin.

The choice of the press jury turned out to be soprano Hedvig Haugerud. The press jury consisted of Anne Aavik from Estonia, Kikka Holmberg and Harri Kuusisaari from Finland, and Jürgen Otten and Michael Stallknecht from Germany.

Like the main jury, the student jury chose Jingjing Xu as their favourite. The members of the student jury were Liisa Kouvonen from Turku University of Applied Sciences, Tanja Niemelä from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, and Tiina Salminen from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle audience favourite award went to Kathrin Lorenzen.

Jury  members were bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, pianist Keval Shah, baritone Bo Skovhus, mezzo-soprano Randi Stene, and soprano Dawn Upshaw. The jury was chaired by soprano Soile Isokoski.

The year 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition, as the competition was held for the first time in August 1984. Much has since changed in the world and in the cultural field, but the core values of the competition remain the same: those of its benefactor and, virtually, creator, Mirjam Helin (1911–2006), Finnish singer and a leading vocal pedagogue of her time. She devoted her career to fostering young singers, having herself refused an operatic career in the 1930s due to opposition from her father and husband.

In 1981, on the eve of her 70th birthday, Mirjam Helin, then a professor at the Sibelius Academy, made a large donation to the Finnish Cultural Foundation, intended for establishing an international singing competition. For many years, she had nurtured a dream of a world-class competition, providing a platform for young singers across the world to show their talent, meet other singers and grow as artists.

Her idea was received with great enthusiasm at the Foundation. Professor Paavo Hohti had recently started as an official at the Finnish Cultural Foundation at the time.

“Mirjam Helin’s proposition was simply magnificent, and a positively transformative event for the Foundation, which until then had concentrated on supporting Finnish art and culture through grants”, says Paavo Hohti. Organising a major cultural event opened up a whole new dimension in the functions of the Foundation. It quickly gave Mirjam Helin an affirmative response and launched the preparations. The Mirjam Helin Singing Competition is still organised by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and financed by the Mirjam and Hans Helin Fund.

Prizes:
1st Prize: Jingjing Xu (24), Montréal

2nd Prize: Kathrin Lorenzen (29), Stockholm

3rd Prize: Junho Hwang (25), Berlin

Jury:
Soile Isokoski (Chair), Luca Pisaroni, Keval Shah, Bo Skovhus, Randi Stene, Dawn Upshaw

Artists:
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra / Mark Elder (Conductor)

©︎ WFIMC 2024