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Photo from BBC-Ukraine
Ukrainian Andriy Kimach, 31, won the classic singing contest BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
“There was gleaming talent on show on a night that tested nerve and stamina, but none shone as brilliantly as Andrei Kymach,” The Guardian wrote of the Ukrainian baritone. “An aristocratic presence on stage, the integrity and focus of his musical and dramatic characterisation across the week of competition was compelling.”
More than 400 singers from all over the world submitted applications for this year’s contest, with only 20 participants from 15 countries making it through the selection stage. And of those, five went on to the finals, BBC Ukraine reported.
Kimach’s competitors were tenor Mingjie Lei, 31, from China, bass Patrick Guetti, 31, from the USA and soprano Sooyeon Lee, 30 from South Korea. The judges also gave a wild card entry to mezzo-soprano Guadalupe Barrientos, 32, from Argentina.
In the finals, Kimach, dazzled audiences and the judges when he performed the works of Bizet, Rachmaninov, and Donizetti.
“I can remember watching the competition when I was very young and it would never have occurred to me that I could one day even take part, let alone win,” Kimach said.
Kimach was born in the Vinnytsia region. He studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of Taras Shevchenko University and then at the vocal and conducting faculty of the Pyotr Tchaikovsky Music Academy in Kyiv, in the class of Volodymyr Grishko.
The BBC Cardiff Singer of World has been held every two years since 1983. This year’s money prize is $25,500.
