The Lappeenranta singing competition was won by Emma Kajander and Janne Sihvo – the violation of the rules spoke volumes

Lappeenranta national singing competitions have been won by a soprano Emma Kajander in the women’s series and bass Janne Sihvo in the men’s series.

The final of the competition took place on Monday evening in the Lappeenranta hall in Lappeenranta. The race was organized for the 21st time. The winners received cash prizes of 10,000 euros from the city of Lappeenranta.

A baritone sang third in the men’s series Johannes Pessi and secondly bass baritone Juho Stén. The second prize in the women’s category was awarded to a soprano Emma Hartikainen and soprano Marjaana Ritanen between.

The public’s favorite in the race was Emma Kajander. He received 30 percent of the public vote.

A total of seven singers were heard in the final. Special prizes in the competition were given to the soprano who also sang in the final Irisilona Segerstam and bass Martin Iivarinen.

The competitors were accompanied by Saimaa Sinfonietta, led by a conductor Erkki Lasonpalo.

Men’s the winner of the series, Janne Sihvo (b. 1992), initially studied in Oulu as both a guitar and vocal pedagogue and then continued his vocal studies at the Sibelius Academy. For music preferences you can hear many kinds of music from classical to electro and metal. From 2022, Sihvo is a permanent member of the soloists of the National Opera.

Helsinki-born Emma Kajander (b. 1997) started her vocal studies at the Helsinki Conservatory in secondary vocational education in 2019 and has since continued her studies at the Sibelius Academy. He made his debut at the National Opera In The Phantom of the Opera in the 2023–2024 season.

Lappeenranta the singing competition is one of the most significant domestic singing competitions, with the help of which many singers have started a successful career Karita Mattilasta Camilla Nylundiin and Jorma Hynninen Arttu Katajana.

The competition is organized by the city of Lappeenranta, nowadays every three years. Female competitors must be born in 1992 or later, men must be born in 1990 or later.

This one in this year’s competition, the question of the software for the semi-finals and related rule violations caused discussion.

In the current rules of the competition, it is said that the singer must also choose works by non-husbands to sing in the semi-final.

The purpose of clarifying the rules is to encourage singers to build versatile program ensembles and also to promote the visibility of works by non-male singers in recital programs.

However, two singers, Janne Sihvo, who won the competition, and Juho Stén, another finalist, had not taken this requirement into account when building their own semi-final repertoire.

The jury of the competition decided that non-observance of the rule will not lead to measures and that the competitors will be given a break from work.

President of the jury, opera singer Lilli Paasikivi explained the solution In an interview with Yleisradio saying that the punishment would have been an overreaction in this situation.

“I am convinced that it is an unintentional mistake. It would have been an overreaction on the part of the jury to start fining the competitors, especially when the competition organization should also have noticed this deficiency in the software selection in time.”

“We will learn from this mistake and make sure that something similar does not happen in the future”, the executive director of the competition Milko Vesalainen write on the website of the competition.

The other members of the jury were bass Jyrki Korhonenbaritone Jaakko Kortekangaspiano artist Baby Rantasoprano Johanna Rusanen-Kartano and conductor Mikko Franck.

Correction 6.1. at 21:32. Corrected the upper age limit of competitors. The article first incorrectly read that the upper age limit for the women’s series would be 30 and the upper age limit for the men’s series would be 32. The correct limits are 32 and 34.