Armenian soprano Arpi Sinanyan and Chinese baritone Jiazhou Wang have won the 21st International Singing Competition "New Voices." They prevailed against four other finalists in Gütersloh, the Bertelsmann Foundation, the competition's organizer, announced on Saturday. Both winners received prize money of €15,000.

Winner of "New Voices" 2026

The second prize, worth €10,000, went to soprano Aigerim Altynbek (Kazakhstan) and bass-baritone Irakli Pkhaladze (Georgia). Third place and €5,000 were awarded to soprano Liere Wu (China) and tenor Rafael Rojas (Mexico).

Swedish mezzo-soprano Klara Solén was awarded the Dickie Young Singers Award, worth €5,000. The Audience Award, worth €1,000, and the Patagonia Voice Award went to Rafael Rojas. At 22, the youngest winner in the competition's history, he also received the Junior Jury Prize, worth €1,000.

The final round featured 41 operatic talents from 18 countries. A total of 1,126 singers from 69 countries had applied. The jury was chaired by Alexander Neef, director of the Opéra national de Paris.

The "New Voices" competition was initiated in 1987 by Liz Mohn, then Deputy Chair of the Bertelsmann Foundation's Executive Board. Past winners include renowned artists such as Vesselina Kasarova, René Pape, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Michael Volle, Angelika Kirchschlager, and Christiane Karg.

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