I Éva Marton International Singing Competition attracts attention from around the world

More than 130 singers (abot 15% of them Hungarian) successfully registered by the end-of-March deadline for the four-round competition with total prize money of €42,000, organized in the Liszt Academy between 14-21 September 2014. Besides drawing considerable attention from China, Japan, South Korea, Romania, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine, there have also been entries from many other parts of the world, from Iran to Nigeria, from the USA to Australia, from the Philippines to Israel, including 20 countries in Europe.

"I will only dare utter the word success after the gala concert and prize ceremony is over, but I am absolutely delighted that even on this first occasion the names of Éva Marton, Liszt Academy and Budapest have attracted so many serious entries. Of course, our competition launching just now would find it difficult to compete with the prestigious competition at Glyndebourne or the Viñas competition being staged for the 50th time this year, but I trust that we will successfully lay the foundations and the continuation will be just as good – certainly, the significant number of applicants is a very promising sign. I am looking forward to the competition because I not only give my name and knowledge as chair of the jury; young singers making their applications in response to Éva Marton's invitation can be assured that I will listen to them with pleasure and take all of them under my wing," stated the soprano eponym of the competition and head of the jury who is professor emirata at the Liszt Academy.
 

However, the contest hallmarked by the name of Éva Marton can already be considered a success story for the Liszt Academy, organizer of this first large scale international music competition. The fact is that the means at the disposal of the Liszt Academy – without doubt modest in comparison with those available to foreign organizers – have proved sufficient to gain the attention of the world. The promotion was planned out and implemented by the communications department of the Liszt Academy under the direction of Imre Szabó Stein. The image, brochure and website – completely independent of, yet integrated into the overall visual image of the Liszt Academy, renewed in autumn 2013 – were prepared specifically for the competition. Following the announcement of the competition in December 2013, the managing team used both postal services and email to notify more than 400 universities and institutions of music around the world about the contest. "The launch of the online application at the beginning of January was backed up by a modestly budgeted (by international standards), albeit highly focused, multi-stage international press and search engine marketing campaign. The discreetly elegant creative materials for the competition were visible everywhere from the New York Opera News through the famous overseas and European opera magazines (Opera Now, OpernWelt, Das Opernglas, Opéra Magazine, L'opera) to the Singapore Music Education Asia publication. Announcements about the singing competition appeared on the most popular online search, social networking and video sharing sites, and on professional forums maintaining contacts between people and institutions, while at the same time promoting Hungary and Budapest, as well as reporting on the renewal of the Liszt Academy. This is the first self-organized, important international competition of considerable professional prestige in the history of the Liszt Academy – the successful announcement is an international and professional achievement, primarily in that, given the short deadlines, we had to resort to pioneering online technological solutions," said Communications Director Imre Szabó Stein.

Thanks to extensive promotional efforts, the English and Hungarian language website of the competition has registered more than 15,000 visitors since the announcement. In January 2014, an online platform was opened allowing video uploads, unique in Hungary and indeed at the cutting edge in international terms, through which more than 90% of applications arrived. Éva Marton will open live supplementary applications in the first week in September for those who found the conditions too challenging; women aged 18-32, men aged 18-35 could apply with a recording of a freely selected Baroque excerpt and another aria performed with piano or orchestral accompaniment. "It is a generally established custom at major singing competitions, and it is also my intention, that those who perhaps did not dare to send in their material can also join in the competition," added the head of the jury. The months of waiting will not be uneventful because over the next few weeks a preliminary jury under the direction of Éva Marton will assess the applicants on the basis of their videos. The list of competitors receiving an invitation to the autumn rounds – who will test themselves by performing a Liszt song and seven further arias – will be made public on the competition website by 15 May 2014.

János Áder, President of the Republic of Hungary, is principal patron of the competition, which is receiving significant backing from the Hungarian government; invitations to join the jury – which is headed by Éva Marton – have gone to such greats of the opera world as global star mezzo-soprano Elena Obraztsova and tenor Vittorio Terranova, music critic Sabino Lenoci, founder of L'opera Award and Musical Award Italian music competitions, artistic director of numerous festivals and TV shows, Miguel Lerín, one of the most influential managers in European opera circles, furthermore producer Pål C. Moe, casting consultant of the Glyndebourne Festival, Peter Mario Katona, the highly regarded expert who holds the position of director of casting at the London Royal Opera House, as well as Szilveszter Ókovács, general director of the Opera, and conductor Balázs Kocsár.

The various rounds and the final played out in front of the general public between 16-21 September 2014 will be organized in the Liszt Academy, while the Hungarian State Opera hosts the gala presentation; Ádám Medveczky will be conductor for the final and the gala recital. As a consequence of the planned live television and online broadcasts of the final on 20 September 2014, people will be able to follow proceedings from Hungary and anywhere else in the world; until then, it is worth checking out the competition website at martoncompetition.hu from time to time because this platform will publish the presentational material of the entrants and give details of the autumn rounds open to the public.