Cairns-born soprano Cassandra Wright has won the 2026 Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award, taking the $40,000 first prize alongside two additional awards at the competition held in Sydney over the weekend.

Wright, 32, also received the $5,300 Best Mozart Aria Prize and the $1,000 Audience Choice Award, bringing her total scholarship prize money to $46,300. She performed arias from Rigoletto, Idomeneo, Louise and La traviata during the competition at the Independent Theatre in North Sydney.

Cassandra Wright. Photo © Tracey Lancaster/WinkiPoP Media

The judging panel comprised singers Simon O’Neill, Ghillian Sullivan and Bernadette Cullen, alongside Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation CEO Fiona Janes.

The judges praised Wright’s “exceptional artistry, control and musicality”, noting her extensive range, vocal precision and ability to communicate across a demanding programme.

Wright trained at the Queensland Conservatorium, Royal Academy of Music in London and Georg Solti Bel Canto Accademia. She began her career in the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus before moving to Germany in 2023, where she is a member of the soloist ensemble at Theater Freiburg. Her roles have included Gilda in Rigoletto, Sophie in Werther and Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress.

She has also performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and at Wigmore Hall, and released her debut album, In the Twilight, in 2024. Next season she will make her role debut as Violetta in La traviata. In October, she will perform in a centenary concert for Dame Joan Sutherland at Australia House in London in the presence of Richard Bonynge.

Julia An and Izabelle Zammit. Photo © Tracey Lancaster/WinkiPoP Media

The weekend’s awards also included the eighth Sydney International Song Prize, won jointly by Sydney Izabelle Zammit, 21, and Julia An, 22. The pair received $5,000 each after performing songs by Barber, Schoenberg, Debussy and Wolf.

Zammit is an emerging 21-year-old soprano who is the current recipient of the Taryn Fiebig Scholarship with Pinchgut Opera for the 2026/2027 season.

Pianist An is currently in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Music Performance (Honours), majoring in Collaborative Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

A total of $93,300 in scholarship prize money was awarded to eight singers and two pianists across the two competitions.