Jury 2025
Sergei Leiferkus
President of the Jury
Sergei Leiferkus is considered one of the world’s most renowned and accomplished performing artists. With an international career stretching over 40 years, he made a name for himself in complex opera roles, such as Scarpia (Tosca), Iago (Otello), Rangoni (Boris Godunov), Telramund (Lohengrin) or Alberich (Ring des Nibelungen), to name but a few. He is a frequent guest at the world’s leading opera houses, such as London’s Royal Opera House, Opéra de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Semperoper (Dresden), New York Met, San Francisco, Chicago (Lyric Opera) and Teatro Colón; and at festivals like Salzburg, Glyndebourne or Bregenz.
His repertoire goes on to include famous baritone roles, like Don Giovanni, Nabucco, Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra, Amonasro, Klingsor, Eugene Onegin, Prince Igor or the High Priest of Dagon, and he continues to add new roles, like Schigolch (Lulu) or the Forester (Cunning Little Vixen).
On the concert repertoire, he has appeared with the world’s most famous orchestras, under eminent conductors like Abbado, Solti, Maazel, Levine, Gergiev, Haitink, Muti, Harnoncourt, Tilson Thomas or Ashkenazy. His discography comprises almost 40 recordings, including in opera the roles he is most noted for, and with a particular attention to Russian concert repertoire and the Russian song tradition, from Glinka to Shostakovich.
A native of St. Petersburg, Mr. Leiferkus started his career there (Maly Theatre, then the Mariinsky), before his international breakthorugh in Berlin, in 1980.
Anna Samuil
Soprano
Staatsoper de Berlim
Professor
Hochshule für Musik Hanns Eisler
Soprano Anna Samuil is among the most sought-after singers of her generation and has been steadily engaged as a soloist at the Staatsoper Berlin since 2004.
After her international debut as Violetta (Traviata) at Berlin State Opera in 2003, her career quickly brought her to important stages, like La Scala Milan, New York Met, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper, Hamburg SO, Valencia, Lyon and Tokyo; and to renowned festivals, like Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Verbier, Arena di Verona and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Recordings documenting Anna Samuil’s artistic activities include ‘Eugene Onegin’ from the Salzburg Festival, ‘Don Giovanni’ from Glyndebourne, ‘Das Rheingold’ and ‘Götterdämmerung’ from La Scala, ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ from Berlin SO, Britten’s ‘War Requiem’, Beethoven’s ‘Ninth Symphony’ and her latest CD release, “Il mondo felice”, an homage to Maria Malibran with her violinist sister Tatiana.
Anna has collaborated with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Antonio Pappano, Plácido Domingo, Myung-whun Chung and Gustavo Dudamel, to name just a few. Directors who have guided her career include Franco Zeffirelli, Peter Stein, Jonathan Miller, Achim Freyer, Claus Guth, and Guy Cassiers. Since 2011 she is a Voice Professor at the Hanns Eisler Music University in Berlin.
Aleksandar Nikolić
Principal Opera Director
Serbian National Theatre - Novi Sad
Aleksandar Nikolić is one of the most active opera and theatre directors in Eastern Europe. He has been collaborating with Belgrade’s National Theater since 2009 and, since the 2018-19 season, also with the National Theater Novi Sad (Serbia’s first National Theatre), having been appointed Principal Opera Director there in 2023.
Mr. Nikolic studied Drama, Audiovisual Arts, Art History and Stage Design in Belgrade and served as assistant director to the 13th revival of Richard Eyre’s original 1994 production of Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ at London’s Royal Opera House (2016).
From 2019 through 2023, he was general manager at Little Theater Duško Radović, in Belgrade, where he produced a total 22 works.
In Serbia and abroad, he moves with equal ease in opera, theatre and dance, and his work on the opera stage includes Aida, Faust and Rigoletto for the National Theatre Novi Sad, Orfeo ed Euridice, L’incoronazione di Poppea and La serva padrona at the National Theatre Belgrade, Tosca with the Belgrade Philharmonic, Don Giovanni and The Telephone for Sarajevo’s National Theatre, Don Giovanni at Universal Artists Festival (Boston), Pyramus and Thisbe and Die Fledermaus in Jerusalem and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Vrnjačka Banja Summer Festival. Next June, he will be staging Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the final event in Belgrade Philharmonic’s 100th Jubilee Season.
Catarina Sereno
Mezzo-soprano
Since her early years, Belgian-Portuguese mezzo-soprano, Catarina Sereno has been passionate about the stage art forms, with a particular interest in classical music.
She starts her musical training in her home town, Coimbra followed by Escola das Artes in Porto, before graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, on a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship.
During her training years she attended masterclasses with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Sarah Walker, Malcolm Martineau, Elizabeth Connell, and she is an ENOA alumni.
She started her career as a lyric soprano before transitioning to the mezzo-soprano repertoire. She has sung, among others, the roles of Maria in Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires, Irma in Charpentier’s Louise, Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Pamina in the Flute Magica, Medoro in Orlando Generoso by Steffani and the monologue La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc and has performed for companies such as Grange Park Opera and Buxton Opera Festival.
In contemporary opera, she premiered as Circe in Viagron by Gieshoff for the Tete-a-Tete Festival and sang Voce 4 in Laborintus II by Berio with LSO St Luke’s.
Catarina collaborates as a ‘freelance ensemble singer’ with opera houses La Monnaie and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, working with directors such as Alain Platel, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damiano Michieletto, Olivier Pi, etc.
As an Oratory soloist, she has performed Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and Vesperae Solennes and Mozart’s Misa Brevis K25 broadcast on British radio BBC 4.
Catarina nurtures a special interest in the recital format and repertoire, having performed at the Museu da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, at the United Musicians of Brussels, Festival de Música de Aveiro – Olhares de Outono/Antena 2, Grande Sala do CNM de Brussels, St Martins-in-the-Fields, Windsor Society, and collaborated with the cello octet Cellophony.
Ivan van Kalmthout
Senior Opera Executive
For the last 6 years Mr van Kalmthout has led the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) which has existed since 1954 and whose prizewinners include artists of the stature of Thomas Hampson, Dame Sarah Connolly, Pretty Yende, Josh Lovell and Lenneke Ruiten. He was twice a member himself of the jury of that illustrious competition and has also served as a jury member of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2002, the 2nd China International Singing Competition in the same year and in the Bulbul Opera competition in Baku (Azerbeijan) in 2010 and in the Marie Kraja International Singing Competition in Tirana (Albania) 2022. He has a broad range of experience in leading opera houses all over Europe. He was interim artistic director of the Liceu opera house in Barcelona (and before that for 10 years the adjunct artistic director). He worked as Operndirektor in the Staatsoper Unter den Linden im Schillertheater in Berlin. In both latter houses he was closely involved with the two opera studios for younger artists that formed part of the ensemble. He started his career with the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerpen / Ghent where his last position was casting officer.
Sergei Leiferkus
President of the Jury
Sergei Leiferkus is considered one of the world’s most renowned and accomplished performing artists. With an international career stretching over 40 years, he made a name for himself in complex opera roles, such as Scarpia (Tosca), Iago (Otello), Rangoni (Boris Godunov), Telramund (Lohengrin) or Alberich (Ring des Nibelungen), to name but a few. He is a frequent guest at the world’s leading opera houses, such as London’s Royal Opera House, Opéra de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Semperoper (Dresden), New York Met, San Francisco, Chicago (Lyric Opera) and Teatro Colón; and at festivals like Salzburg, Glyndebourne or Bregenz.
His repertoire goes on to include famous baritone roles, like Don Giovanni, Nabucco, Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra, Amonasro, Klingsor, Eugene Onegin, Prince Igor or the High Priest of Dagon, and he continues to add new roles, like Schigolch (Lulu) or the Forester (Cunning Little Vixen).
On the concert repertoire, he has appeared with the world’s most famous orchestras, under eminent conductors like Abbado, Solti, Maazel, Levine, Gergiev, Haitink, Muti, Harnoncourt, Tilson Thomas or Ashkenazy. His discography comprises almost 40 recordings, including in opera the roles he is most noted for, and with a particular attention to Russian concert repertoire and the Russian song tradition, from Glinka to Shostakovich.
A native of St. Petersburg, Mr. Leiferkus started his career there (Maly Theatre, then the Mariinsky), before his international breakthorugh in Berlin, in 1980.
Anna Samuil
Soprano
Staatsoper Berlin
Professor
Hochshule für Musik Hanns Eisler
Soprano Anna Samuil is among the most sought-after singers of her generation and has been steadily engaged as a soloist at the Staatsoper Berlin since 2004.
After her international debut as Violetta (Traviata) at Berlin State Opera in 2003, her career quickly brought her to important stages, like La Scala Milan, New York Met, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper, Hamburg SO, Valencia, Lyon and Tokyo; and to renowned festivals, like Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Verbier, Arena di Verona and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Recordings documenting Anna Samuil’s artistic activities include ‘Eugene Onegin’ from the Salzburg Festival, ‘Don Giovanni’ from Glyndebourne, ‘Das Rheingold’ and ‘Götterdämmerung’ from La Scala, ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ from Berlin SO, Britten’s ‘War Requiem’, Beethoven’s ‘Ninth Symphony’ and her latest CD release, “Il mondo felice”, an homage to Maria Malibran with her violinist sister Tatiana.
Anna has collaborated with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Antonio Pappano, Plácido Domingo, Myung-whun Chung and Gustavo Dudamel, to name just a few. Directors who have guided her career include Franco Zeffirelli, Peter Stein, Jonathan Miller, Achim Freyer, Claus Guth, and Guy Cassiers. Since 2011 she is a Voice Professor at the Hanns Eisler Music University in Berlin.
Eline de Kat
Artistic Coordinator, Opera de Monte-Carlo
Eline de Kat is Déléguée Artistique at Opéra de Monte-Carlo, responsible for the casting of singers, conductors, artistic planning, organization of auditions and assistance to the artists amongst other responsibilities. She has worked with artists such as Roberto Alagna, Bryn Terfel, Angela Gheorghiu, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Marcelo Alvarez and Sonya Yoncheva.
Eline was Orchestra Manager of the Musiciens du Prince-Monaco from 2019 to 2023, Artistic director of FIPAC (Formation Internationale Professionnelle des Artistes de Choeur) between 2018 and 2019 and Artistic Consultant of the Chorégies d’Orange between 2017 and 2022.
Other notable positions include Artist Manager at Prima International Artists Management (2000-2001), Artist Manager at IMG Artists New York (1997-2000), Artist Manager at Allied Artists (1996), Artist Manager at Stage Door Opera Management, Modena (1991-1996).
In addition to her broad professional endeavors, Eline de Kat has a special interest in Mountain walking, traveling, oriental dancing, world music and literature.
Ivan van Kalmthout
Senior Opera Executive
For the last 6 years Mr van Kalmthout has led the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) which has existed since 1954 and whose prizewinners include artists of the stature of Thomas Hampson, Dame Sarah Connolly, Pretty Yende, Josh Lovell and Lenneke Ruiten. He was twice a member himself of the jury of that illustrious competition and has also served as a jury member of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2002, the 2nd China International Singing Competition in the same year and in the Bulbul Opera competition in Baku (Azerbeijan) in 2010 and in the Marie Kraja International Singing Competition in Tirana (Albania) 2022. He has a broad range of experience in leading opera houses all over Europe. He was interim artistic director of the Liceu opera house in Barcelona (and before that for 10 years the adjunct artistic director). He worked as Operndirektor in the Staatsoper Unter den Linden im Schillertheater in Berlin. In both latter houses he was closely involved with the two opera studios for younger artists that formed part of the ensemble. He started his career with the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerpen / Ghent where his last position was casting officer.
Jennifer Larmore
Mezzo-soprano
Professor
Music College Seoul National University
Jennifer Larmore is an American mezzo-soprano, a Grammy award winner with over 100 recordings to her name, Chevalier of the French government, Richard Tucker Award winner, Georgia Hall of Famer, voice teacher, author and actress in the new Netflix series King the Land.
She has a wide-ranging repertoire, having begun with coloratura roles from the Baroque and bel canto then adding music from the Romantic and Contemporary periods, sung at virtually every major opera house in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Paris Opera, Tokyo, Berlin Deutsche Oper, and London Covent Garden, in collaboration with world renowned orchestras under the direction of Muti, Lopez-Cobos, Bernstein, Runnicles, Sinopoli, Masur, von Dochnanyi, Jacobs, Mackerras, Nelson, Spinosi, Abbado, Barenboim, Bonynge, Maazel, Osawa and Guidarini.
Miss Larmore, in collaboration with the double bass player Davide Vittone, created an ensemble called Jennifer Larmore and OpusFive. This is a string quintet offering programs that are entertaining and varied with Songs and Arias, Cabaret/Operetta and Movies and Broadway and have given concerts in Seville, Pamplona, Valencia, Las Palmas, Venice, Amiens, Olten, Aix en Provence, Dublin, and Paris. At the Magève.
Miss Larmore is widely known for teaching and giving masterclasses, having taught all over the world. She has recorded over widely for the Teldec, RCA, Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Arabesque, Opera Rara, Bayer, Naive, Chandos, VAI and Cedille labels in over one hundred CDs to date as well as DVDs.
In addition to her many activities, travels, performances and causes, author Jennifer Larmore is working on books that will bring a wider public to the love of opera such as her book “Una Voce” that explores the world and psychology of the performer.
Miss Larmore lives in Paris with her husband, the bass player Davide Vittone and their little Opera dog Buffy.
Juliane Banse
Soprano
Artistic Director, Marvão International Music Festival
Few artists of her generation are as successful as Juliane Banse in so many areas of diverse repertoire. Her operatic repertoire ranges from Feldmarschallin, Figaro-Gräfin, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia to Genoveva, Leonore, Tatjana, Arabella, Marschallin, Grete (Schreker’s Der ferne Klang) and Schneewittchen (in Heinz Holliger’s Schneewittchen).
Born in southern Germany and raised in Zurich, the soprano first took lessons with Paul Steiner, later with Ruth Rohner at the Zurich Opera House, and then completed her studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich.
Since the winter semester 2020/2021, she has been teaching as a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and in the winter semester 2023 she has taken over the direction of the singing class at the Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid. She also gives master classes in Austria and abroad and participates as a jury member in international competitions.
The artist worked with numerous renowned conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Claudio Abbado and Manfred Honeck.
Lieder recitals have always been her passion and have taken her to the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus Vienna, Kölner Philharmonie, Berlin’s Boulez Hall and Madrid, among others.
Pål Christian Moe
Casting Consultant at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Pål Christian Moe has extensive experience in casting and as artistic administrator and adviser. He has worked with numerous opera houses, including the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris, L’Opéra de Lille and the National Theatre in Prague. He also does vocal casting for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
He is a former record producer and held the position as Head of Vocal Department at Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft in Hamburg, where he was responsible for recordings of opera, oratorio and Lied.
Aleksandar Nikolić
Principal Opera Director
Serbian National Theatre
Aleksandar Nikolić is one of the most active opera and theatre directors in Eastern Europe. He has been collaborating with Belgrade’s National Theater since 2009 and, since the 2018-19 season, also with the National Theater Novi Sad (Serbia’s first National Theatre), having been appointed Principal Opera Director there in 2023.
Mr. Nikolic studied Drama, Audiovisual Arts, Art History and Stage Design in Belgrade and served as assistant director to the 13th revival of Richard Eyre’s original 1994 production of Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ at London’s Royal Opera House (2016).
From 2019 through 2023, he was general manager at Little Theater Duško Radović, in Belgrade, where he produced a total 22 works.
In Serbia and abroad, he moves with equal ease in opera, theatre and dance, and his work on the opera stage includes Aida, Faust and Rigoletto for the National Theatre Novi Sad, Orfeo ed Euridice, L’incoronazione di Poppea and La serva padrona at the National Theatre Belgrade, Tosca with the Belgrade Philharmonic, Don Giovanni and The Telephone for Sarajevo’s National Theatre, Don Giovanni at Universal Artists Festival (Boston), Pyramus and Thisbe and Die Fledermaus in Jerusalem and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Vrnjačka Banja Summer Festival. Next June, he will be staging Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the final event in Belgrade Philharmonic’s 100th Jubilee Season.
Adriano Jordão
Cascais Opera Artistic Director
In Portugal, Adriano Jordão studied piano with Helena Sá e Costa, among other masters. In 1967, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation granted him the opportunity to spend a year in the United States to further his artistic development.
His career has taken him across Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, to musical capitals such as New York, Paris, London, Athens, Rome, Salzburg, Brussels, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Minsk, Prague, Bucharest, Bratislava, Caracas, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Washington and Boston.
He has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Alain Lombard, Sandor Végh, Claudio Scimone, Van Remoortel, Richard Treiber, Cristian Mandeal, Nicholas Kremmer, Horia Andreescu, John Neschling, Wolfgang Rennert, Nicholas Braithwaite, John Georgiadis, Yuan Fang, Muhai Tang and Chen Zou Wang. He has also worked with leading Portuguese conductors, including Silva Pereira, Álvaro Cassuto, José Ferreira Lobo, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Álvaro Salazar and Fernando Eldoro.
Together with Theodor Paraskivesco, Ileana Cotrubas, Peter Schreier, Julia Hamari, and Ionel Pantea, he founded the chamber ensemble I Vocalisti, dedicated to lesser-known works from the vocal chamber repertoire. With this group, he performed recitals across the Far East, Brazil and in Lisbon at the Belém Cultural Centre. He also conceived and directed the Macau International Music Festival during its first five years and has been the Artistic Director of the Casa de Mateus Music Festival for more than 20 years.
Adriano Jordão has been awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government and received the Medal of Merit from the Sovereign Order of Malta, among other honors. In the 2000-2001 season, he maintained an intense schedule, performing in Rome, both solo and with orchestra, making his debut with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (in the Philharmonic Hall of St. Petersburg), and with the State of Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra (in Mexico City). He also made his first appearance in Turkey at the Grand Auditorium of the Bilkent Foundation in Ankara.
In addition, he toured Germany as a soloist with the Capella Istropolitana, performed with the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Oradea and Arad. He also participated in the George Enescu Festival, performed with the Slovak Chamber Orchestra, and gave solo recitals with bass Boris Martinovich in Washington (BACI Auditorium and Great Hall of the Americas). Alongside the same singer and Denyce Graves, he participated in a gala event in Monaco and completed two extensive tours in Brazil and the Far East, performing in Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan.
In Portugal, he has performed throughout the country, including Madeira and the Azores, in solo recitals, concerts with orchestra and in chamber music groups. In 2002, he performed in Cuba in March and in Brazil in April.
Currently, he serves as the Artistic Director of Cascais Opera – International Singing Competition, a position he holds alongside the esteemed baritone Sergei Leiferkus.
Carlos Otero
Singer
Director
Carlos Otero was born in Lisbon and has lived in Paris for over 60 years, where he has worked as an actor, opera singer, and director of theater and opera. He has performed as a singer at festivals such as Aix-en-Provence, where he appeared in operas like The Barber of Seville and The Magic Flute; in Versailles, at the Théâtre Montansier, with works including The Doctor in Spite of Himself (Molière/Gounod), William Tell (Rossini), If I Were King (Alfred Adam), The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (Offenbach), The Opera of Aran (Gilbert Bécaud), Carmen (Bizet), The Prince of Madrid (Francis Lopez), Romeo and Juliet (Gounod), The Beggar’s Opera (Britten), Mahagonny (Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill), The Pearl Fishers (Bizet), La Belle Hélène (Jacques Offenbach), Love Song (Frantz Schubert), Mireille (Charles Gounod), La Traviata (Verdi), The Daughter of the Drum Major (Offenbach), Manon (Massenet), Mascotte (Audran), Werther (Massenet), and Volga (Francis Lopez), in over 3,200 public performances.
In theatre, he has performed at the Théâtre National Populaire, Paris; Théâtre de L’Athénée, Paris; Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; and at the Festival d’Avignon, with works by Molière and Shakespeare. As a director, he has staged works by G. Courteline, G. Feydeau, R. Brandão, O. de Castro, Fernando Pessoa, P. da Silveira, and E. Albee.
Carlos Otero has worked throughout his career with distinguished names such as actress Edwige Feuillère, actor and director Georges Wilson, and Jerome Robbins, Broadway producer, director, and choreographer, where he presented the musical comedy Fiddler on the Roof in 1969 at the Théâtre Marigny. He directed and staged the drama Themos by Mozart and the opera The Magic Flute at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, with the productions being praised by critics for successfully conveying the essential supernatural and wondrous aspects of Mozart’s masterpieces. Regarding the operatic aspect of his professional life, he has performed roles or directed operas by Bellini, Bizet, Donizetti, Gounod, F. Lehar, Offenbach, Mozart, Planquette, Puccini, Ravel, Rossini, Salieri, Verdi, and Zandonai. In cinema, he has participated in productions for film and television with directors such as J. P. Mocky, M. Dugonson, R. Polanski, M. Ritchie, Peter Sellers, and C. Pinoteau, among others.
A man of theater and music par excellence, Carlos Otero created a comic opera company in Paris, with which he presented various shows, primarily aimed at new audiences, reaching over 8,000 young people. This same project achieved great success even in Portugal, with a presentation before more than 800 young people at the CCB in Lisbon.
He is also the author of a biography of composer A. Salieri, a screenplay about French operetta, a short film with Rossini’s music, various books on musicians and composers, as well as three plays. With a degree in Musicology from the Sorbonne, he currently focuses on musical research and direction, working to convey the “good message.”
