Three barihunks advance to semi-finals in Montreal Competition

Vasil Garvaliev backstage and onstage at the Montreal Competition (Photos: CBC Music)

Barihunks Byeong-Min Gil from South Korea, Takaoki Onishi from Japan and Vasil Garvanliev from Macedonia are among the 12 finalists in the Montreal International Musical Competition, which began on May 25. The competition started with 24 singers from nine countries and will be reduced to 6 after each of the singers performs a recital this weekend.

The singers are performing for $80,000 in prize money, including, $30,000 for 1st Prize, $15,000 for 2nd Prize, $10,000 for 3rd Prize, $5,000 for best French Art Song, $5,000 for best Canadian Artist, $5,000 for best artist from Quebec and a $5,000 People's Choice award.  The three top prize-winners will perform with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at a Gala concert on June 5.

Takaoki Onishi and Byeong-Min Gil at the Montreal Competition (Photos: CBC Music)

Byeong-Min Gil is currently studying with Attila Jun at the College of Music at Seoul National University. He took the top honors at the 2014 Busan Ilbo Voice Competition in and 3rd Prize at the Schubert Lied Competition.

Takaoki Onishi is currently completing his Graduate Diploma at Juilliard School. This season, he joins the Ryan Center of Lyric Opera of Chicago. He won the top prizes at the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation International Competition and the Opera Index Inc. Competition.

Vasil Garvanliev, who has appeared frequently on this site and in our calendar, is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He was a member of Calgary’s Opera Emerging Young Artist Program and a member of Opera Atelier, and took part in the Toronto Summer Music Festival & Academy. He was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions – Illinois District in 2014-15.

You can watch the competition online.  Gil and Onishi performed yesterday, but you can watch Garvanliev today at 7:30 EST/4:30 PST. The video will be available for three months.

Other semi-finalists include Claire De Sévigné, Yauci Yanes Ortega, Anaïs Constans, Keonwoo Kim, Owen McCsusland, Hyekyung Choi, Min Gue Cho, France Bellemare, Hyesang Park.