Nicole Car shares joint first prize in German international songfest.

Australian soprano Nicole Car has won joint first prize in Germany’s Neue Stimmen vocal competition. She takes home 15,000 euros. The American soprano, Nadine Sierra was the co-winner amongst the women with Russian soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan placed third.

Nicole, who can be seen next year with Opera Australia as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Mimi in La Bohème and Desdemona in Otello, was in excellent voice and can be seen below singing the Jewel aria from Gounod’s Faust in the semi-finals.

Nicole, who received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Melbourne in 2007 was awarded the title Symphony Australia Young Vocalist the same year. Her debut as Donna Anna at Victorian Opera followed in 2009. Since 2011 Nicole has appeared as Donna Anna, Mimi and Micaëla with Opera Australia in Sydney.

Myong-Hyun Lee, a tenor from South Korea won the men’s competition (see below) with the bass, Oleg Tibulco from Moldova, coming second and the Ukranian baritone Oleksandr Kyreiev placed third.

The televised competition held in Gütersloh is billed as the world’s biggest and has previously thrown up names such as Nathalie Stutzmann, Christine Opolais, Vesselina Kasarova and René Pape....