The world-renowned opera star has agreed to support the prestigious competition at the invitation of its namesake, Éva Marton, and its organiser, the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest.

In the 2026 subject rankings published by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music is 17th worldwide and 5th in the EU, making it one of the highest ranked music universities.

This year is for composers, the application form is now available on the website.

With a total prize fund of more than 70,000 euros, Liszt Academy's 7th Éva Marton International Singing Competition will be held in early September 2026 in Budapest.

Jeonghwan Kim was awarded with the first prize of €22,000 after Sunday's orchestral final at this year’s Bartók World Competition organised for pianists at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, by the international jury headed by Yoheved Kaplinsky from The Juilliard School.

The competition, which this year is open to pianists and has a total prize fund of more than €51,000 (HUF 20 million), will begin with the semi-finals on 1 September and end with the final and award ceremony on 7 September. The solo final will also include the chance to play on a brand new Bösendorfer 280VC concert piano.

The prestigious international jury of Liszt Academy's competition, which will be held in September for pianists with a total prize fund of more than 51,000 euros, will be chaired by Yoheved Kaplinsky, head of the department at the Juilliard School in New York.

This year's QS World University Rankings by Subject placed the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music 24th in the Performing Arts category and 12th in music education, which means it is among the best higher education institutions in the world.

The first prize of 5,000 euros was awarded to Korean composer Lee Hanuri, the second prize of 3,000 euros to composer Kim Shin, also Korean; and the third prize of 2,000 euros went to Hungarian composer Mátyás Papp, whose works was selected by an international jury led by world-renowned British composer Thomas Adès.