The International Belvedere Singing Competition has cancelled this year’s finals due to COVID-19. The event was planned for Jurmala, Latvia this summer, but will now take place in 2021.
The competition has qualifying rounds all over the world, and so far 201 singers have taken part in cities such as Amsterdam and Barcelona. The 38 singers who have qualified for the finals so far will automatically progress to the 2021 finals.
“We tried until the very end to make the finale week happen…however, the worldwide effects of the pandemic make it impossible to hold a final event and award the prize winners this year,” said organisers Isabella Gabor and Holger Bleck.
“Initially, it seemed that a postponement to autumn was possible, but now our partners in the Latvian city of Jurmala, where the finals should have taken place, have finally cancelled the event.”
Some of the postponed qualifiers will still take place: Irkutsk (21 August), Varazdin (4 September), Zurich (13 September) and Madrid (23 September).
The organisers added that “We want to continue to offer young people the chance of an international opera career,” and that the search for a venue for the 2021 finals is underway.