Our Resounding Success This Past Spring
The Giulio Gari Foundation had its 20th annual International Vocal Competition May 5-9, 2025, and its celebratory Winners Concert and Dinner on Sunday, May 18, 2025. Special thanks to our distinguished panel of Judges which included panel chair Ken Benson, judges Dona Vaughn, Cynthia Munzer, Arthur Levy and Tyson Deaton.
Both were resounding successes. The Competition thanks to the efforts of all those at the Foundation who’s help each year contribute to its success and to our esteemed Board Member Tarquin Callen who graciously underwrote the Concert and Dinner which was held at the historic Players Club New York. We also thank Michele Baldwin, Dianne Collins and PJ Ewing whose help and dedication ensure the smooth functioning of the Competition and Dinner. This year our honored guest and Giulio Gari Foundation Career Honoree was the distinguished American tenor Neil Shicoff, one of the most important American singers of the past half century. Mary Pinto, our Music Director and Board Member again provided the musical accompaniment for our 2025 Winners. A special appearance was made by Giulio Gari Foundation 2017 First Prize Winner soprano Maria Brea, accompanied by Colby Charnin.
Yeongtaek Yang, one of our two 2025 First Prize Winners is currently a member of the Lindemann Young Artists Program of the Metropolitan Opera. Previously he had been in the Young Artist program at Santa Fe Opera. This summer he covered Giorgio Germont in La Traviata and Don Giovanni. Upcoming this season at the Met is Morales in Carmen and Yamadori in Madama Butterfly. He will be covering Ping in Turandot and Roucher in Andrea Chenier.
Alec Carlson, our co-First Prize winner, won second prize in the 2025 Wagner Society of New York Competition one week after the Giulio Gari. This season he also won an award from the George London Foundation and was awarded grants from the Loren Zachary Foundation and 2nd Place at Opera at Florham. Previously he had been a member of the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Soprano Sofia Gotch, Third Prize Winner, has had a banner year. Third Prize winner at the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, she is a member of the prestigious Merola Program of the San Francisco Opera. Upcoming is Almirena in Handel’s Rinaldo with the Manhattan School of Music. Her most recent performance is in Rossini’s Le Comte D’Ory with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Soprano Abigail Raiford, our Fourth Prize Winner was also a Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition this year. She just sang in Bellini’s La Sonnambula with Teatro Nuovo at the New York City Center. Upcoming appearances include a world premiere of White Raven, Black Dove in Boston and Julie Jordan in Carousel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. December brings an appearance with Opera Philadelphia in a Vivaldi program.
Our Fifth Prize winner, tenor Giorgi Guliashvili hails from the Republic of Georgia. He previously won First Prize at the Gerda Lissner Competition and has been a finalist and prize winner in the last two Giulio Gari Competitions. He begins the new season as a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Program at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London. This summer brings performances as Lensky in Eugene Onegin at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and September brings performances in Verdi’s Les Vepres Siciliennes at the Royal Opera House. Upcoming at the Royal Opera are performances in La Traviata and I Puritani.
Grant Winner, Korean Soprano Jihye Jang is working towards her degree from Manhattan School of Music. She has already sung Mimi in La Boheme, Arabella and has appeared in Don Giovanni, Les Contes D’Hoffmann and Maria Stuarda. At 25, we predict a fine future for this talented Lirico-spinto.
Grant winner, Turkish baritone Enes Pektas is a natural Verdi voice. He completed his Master of Music degree from the Mannes School of Music. He was also a member of the vocal program at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Enes has already performed Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Marcello in La Boheme, Belcore in L’Elisir D’Amore, Don Giovanni and Michele in Puccini’s Il Tabarro. He has participated in and received awards from the Gerda Lissner Foundation and the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. a
Our final prize winner was Grant winner Hyunu Roh. This young man (25) came to New York unannounced, with no prior American experience and proceeded to display an amazingly mature baritone voice. Prior to coming to New York, he had won Third Prize in the Piero Cappuccilli Competition in Italy when he was 18 and was a prize winner at the Tenor Vinas Competition in Spain at the age of 22. He will now be basing his career in the United States and I predict we will hear wonderful things from him in the future.
We enter the 2025-26 season with plans for another Giulio Gari International Voice Competition, our 21st since our founding in 2001. Final plans will be announced in the coming months, but we are planning to have our Competition a bit earlier this year. Instead of our usual May dates, we hope to announce a late April time. We will also be announcing the date and location of our Winners Concert and Gala Dinner. As in the past, our Competition will take place at the Liederkranz with a distinguished panel of judges.
The list of Giulio Gari Competition prize winners continues to grow and many of our prize winners are having major careers around the world. The Metropolitan Opera will be presenting the famed Zeffirrelli production of Turandot in September with two of our early prize winners heading the cast. Dramatic soprano Angela Meade (2007) sings Turandot after her critically acclaimed first performances last season in Los Angeles and she is joined by Michael Fabiano (2006) as Calaf. Later this season Michael teams up with Isabel Leonard (2005 ) in Carmen. Other Giulio Gari alumni are prominently featured this season at the Met. Isabel will perform the role of Frida Kahlo in the Met Premier of El L’Ultimo Sueno di Frida y Diego, Le Bu (2023) will appear in the Holiday presentation of The Magic Flute, tenor SeokJong Baek (2018) sings Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Brandon Cedel (2010) returns to the Met in Don Giovanni. Anthony Clark Evans (2012) appears as Marcello in Boheme and Germont in Traviata.
Yonghoon Lee (2005) returns to the Bavarian State Opera in November as Canio in Pagliacci and later in June 2026 as Calaf opposite the Turandot of Sondra Radvanovsky. Yonghoon has also busied himself teaching and mentoring young singers in South Korea and many of our contestants and winners have worked with him there, most recently ByeongMin Gil (2019), SeokJong Baek (2018) and Hyunu Roh (2025). He continues his illustrious career while working with a new generation of singers. Since his Met debut as Don Carlo in 2011 he has forged one of the great careers of our time.
Rising star tenor Joshua Guerrero continues with a busy season. Just having sung Macduff in Macbeth in Salzburg, he will sing Cavaradossi in Tosca with the Dutch National Opera, Rodolfo in Boheme at the Paris Opera, and the Verdi Requiem with the Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland and Carnegie Hall, he begins 2026 as Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut in Frankfurt and Adorno in Simon Boccanegra in Vienna and Amsterdam.
Gloria Gari and the Board of Directors hopes you will support our future endeavors as we strive to help young operatic artists at the cusp of their careers. The Foundation cannot function without your love of opera and financial support. We hope everyone had a summer filled with good times and welcome everyone to take the journey into the new season.
The Giulio Gari Winners 2025
First Prize – $10,000 each
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Alec Carlson – Stephen De Maio Award
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Yeongtaek Yang – Glen Gary Award
Third Prize – $5,000
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Sofia Gotch – Licia Albanese Award
Fourth Prize – $4,000
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Abigail Raiford – Elinor Ross Award
Fifth Prize – $3,000
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Giorgi Guliashvili – Scott Barnes Award
Grants – $1,500 each
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Kamil Enes Pektas
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Jihye Jang
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Hyunu Roh
Finalists
Thomas Kinch
Aubrey Odle
Arianna Rodriguez
Joseph Sacchi
Johanna Will
Minki Hong
Amanda Sheriff
Catherine Goode
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