Sidra Nissen has been named the winner of the 2025 IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition after the finals performance on 25 September at Chatswood’s The Concourse.

Sida Nissen at the 2025 IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition finals. Photo supplied

For her performance of Mozart’s Smanie implacabili from Così fan tutte and Ravel’s Kaddish, the 23-year-old Victorian mezzo-soprano takes home the prestigious Marianne Mathy Scholarship, which grants $30,000 towards study or singing activities.

She also earns an audition opportunity for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s professional development program, the Lili Ussher Prize (a painted portrait of herself), a folio of photographic prints, a taped interview to be retained by the National Library of Australia, and the Mathy Limited Edition Drago Marin Cherina Statuette.

Nissen has also been additionally awarded the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute Montreal Scholarship, which grants $4,000 to assist with travel expenses to participate in the institute’s Summer Program.

This year, Nissen joined Opera Scholars Australia as a Graduate Scholar. She began her performing career with the Victorian Opera Youth Chorus Ensemble and studied at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School and the University of Melbourne. She made her professional debut in the ensemble for Victorian Opera’s Il Mago di Oz and went on to perform in its 2023 production of Cheremushki. 

She was awarded first place at the 2025 Warrnambool Eisteddfod final in the Oratoria/Art Song category, the Janet Perkins Vocal Scholarship and the Robert Salzer Foundation Scholarship. She was awarded second place at the 2022 National Leiderfest, alongside the Ian Field Memorial Award for best German diction.

Sophie Blades, Brittany Northcott, Wesley Haotian You, Aidan Hodder, Sidra Nissen and National Adjudicator Jeffrey Black. Photo supplied

Wesley Haotian Yu was awarded the Sherman Lowe Study Prize, which grants private lessons with Italian voice teacher Sherman Lowe and supports travel expenses.

Aidan Hodder was awarded the Perth Symphony Orchestra Prize, which offers a performance engagement with $5,000 for travel expenses and a further $1,000 for its professional audiovisual recording.

Brittney Northcott takes home the Royal Northern College of Music Award, funding one year’s tuition at the Manchester School and travel expenses, and the Zeny Edwards Education Grant.

Sophie Blades has been awarded the $7,000 Merena Legacy Prize, which allows her to study Italian in Italy, private lessons with London-based voice teacher Linnhe Robertson (plus $3,000 to contribute to expenses) and the MOST Audience Prize, worth $500.

All finalists also earn the Opera Australia Finalist Audition Prize, an invitation to the final round of auditions for OA’s 2026 Young Artist Program.

Presented by the Musician and Opera Trust (MOST), this year’s competition marks its 41st iteration. Past winners include  Eden Shifroni, Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, Jeremy Boulton, Jessica Pratt, Stuart Skelton and Max Riebel. Led by National Adjudicator Jeffrey Black (who himself won the competition in its second year), this year’s adjudicators are Joanne Goodman, Kate Johnson, Frances Green and Simon Lobelson.

More about the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition can be found here.