UCT opera star wins Belvedere competition

06 July 2015

Tenor Levy Sekgapane of UCT's Opera School has won the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition 2015 finals, held in Amsterdam on 4 July.

Among his prizes, Sekgapane has been awarded opera engagements (if roles are available) at the Aalto Theater und Philharmonie Essen, the Festliche Operngala der Deutschen AIDS-Stiftung and the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona. The opera jury donated these. He also won the Wil Keune Prize, donated by the media jurors.

Sekgapane was one of four UCT singers (three alumni and a student from the Opera School at the South African College of Music), who competed in the finals. They accounted for more than a quarter of this year's 15 finalists from countries as diverse as South Korea, Canada, the US, Georgia, Russia, Finland, Slovenia and Norway.

The competition has been a springboard for world-renowned stars such as UCT alumna Pretty Yende, who won the first prize for opera in 2009.

The finals of the next competition will be held in Cape Town in 2016.

Photo caption: UCT's Opera School tenor Levy Sekgapane (middle) has won the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition 2015. He is flanked by runners-up soprano Lise Davidsen of Norway and tenor Ki Hun Park of South Korea.

Story by Helen Swingler. Photo courtesy of the 34th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition 2015.


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