RIGA — Armenian soprano Juliana Grigoryan and US tenor Anthony León, were announced winners of the Operalia 2022 World Opera Competition.
Juliana Grigoryan was also named winner of the Rolex Prize of the Audience.
Operalia was founded in 1993 by Plácido Domingo to discover and help launch the careers of the most promising young opera singers of today.
Operalia’s goal is to attract singers between the ages of eighteen and thirty-two, of all voice types from and all over the world, to have them audition and be heard by a panel of distinguished international personalities, in the most prestigious and competitive showcase in the world.
Armenian soprano Juliana Grigoryan is the most recent winner of the International Stanislaw Moniuszko Vocal Competition Grand Prize. She also received the Marcella Sembrich-Kochańska Prize for the youngest finalist and The Katowice City Of Gardens – Krystyna Bochenek Cultural Institution Prize.
She has performed with The Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, and the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia and has enjoyed opportunities to sing under the baton of Eduard Topchjan, Sergey Smbatyan, and Harutyun Arzumanyan.
In 2021, Juliana performed Bach’s Magnificat with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia and the Yerevan State Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gianluca Marciano. She sung Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she went on to tour the Czech Republic and Italy with. She finished off the 2021-2022 season with a role debut of Zemphira in Rachmaninoff’s Aleko with the Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. In September 2021, Juliana performed at a concert dedicated to the Independence of the Republic of Armenia which was held in Republic Square, Yerevan. Later that year, Juliana went on to tour in the Czech Republic and Italy with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
The 2022/23 season includes various house and role debuts for Juliana. She performs with Dutch National Opera as Liu in Turandot, at Teatro alla Scala in Dvořák’s Rusalka, and as Mimi for Ravenna Festival’s La bohème.
Juliana holds a Master’s from Yerevan State Conservatory and is a member of their Young Artist Opera Program.
