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The 2024 winner of the Mirjam Helin Competition is Jingjing Xu

The winner of the 2024 Mirjam Helin competition is the Chinese mezzo-soprano Jingjing Xu, who received a prize of €50,000. The German soprano Kathrin Lorenzen placed second, receiving €40,000, and the South Korean tenor Junho Hwang placed third and received €30,000. The Polish soprano Justyna Khil, the Armenian baritone Aksel Daveyan, and the Croatian soprano Josipa Bilić also participated in the final, and each of them received €10,000.

Iloinen nainen suuri kukkakimppu kädessään

Jingjing Xu. Photo: Minna Hatinen.

“The standard of the competitors has been extremely high, and the audience fantastic. Furthermore, there has been a good spirit among the jury. It has been a great pleasure to be part of the competition,” says jury chair Soile Isokoski.

The €5,000 prize for the best Lied performance went to the German baritone Gabriel Rollinson for his Among the Fuchsias by Harry Burleigh. The €5,000 prize for the best performance of a Finnish song by a singer whose native language is neither Finnish nor Swedish went to the Hungarian soprano Renáta Gebe-Fügi for her interpretation of Minä metsän polkuja kuljen by Erkki Melartin.

The choice of the press jury was the Norwegian soprano Hedvig Haugerud. The press jury consisted of Anne Aavik from Estonia, Kikka Holmberg and Harri Kuusisaari from Finland, and Jürgen Otten and Michael Stallknecht from Germany.

The student jury chose the Chinese mezzo-soprano Jingjing Xu as their favourite. The members of the student jury were Liisa Kouvonen from Turku University of Applied Sciences, Tanja Niemelä from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, and Tiina Salminen from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle audience favourite award went to Kathrin Lorenzen.

The jury members were bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, pianist Keval Shah, baritone Bo Skovhus, mezzo-soprano Randi Stene, and soprano Dawn Upshaw. The jury was chaired by soprano Soile Isokoski.

You can find the presentations and repertoires of the finalists on our website:

Josipa Bilić
Aksel Daveyan
Junho Hwang
Justyna Khil
Kathrin Lorenzen
Jingjing Xu

Mirjam Helin Singing Competition is almost here

The 2024 Mirjam Helin competition will take place on 3–12 June as follows: 

  • Preliminary round 3–6 June at 11:00 and 18:00 
    The details of the contestants will be available after the order of performance draw on 1 June. 
  • Semifinals 7–8 June at 11:00 and 18:00  
    Venue: Sibelius Academy concert hall, Pohjoinen Rautatienkatu 9, 00100 Helsinki 
  • Final concert 12 June at 18:30  
    Six finalists and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra led by Sir Mark Elder 
    Venue: Musiikkitalo concert hall, Mannerheimintie 13 A, 00100 Helsinki 

Single tickets (from €17) and ticket packages (from €57) are on sale at Ticketmaster, as well as the Musiikkitalo box office. Single tickets can also be purchased at the door before each event.  

All concerts will be streamed live on Yle Areena and will be available as recordings on our website. Streaming links will be published soon. Please note that the time zone in Helsinki is UTC+02:00. 

Read all about the upcoming competition

Singing is for everyone – and so is the side programme of the competition

If you plan to attend the competition in Helsinki, make sure that you don’t miss the related programme in and around Musiikkitalo as well as on Espa Stage, between 10–12 June. On Monday 10 June at 15:00, there will be a masterclass taught by baritone Luca Pisaroni, and on Tuesday 11 June, there will be another by soprano Dawn Upshaw. In addition, there will be concerts, discussions, singalongs and opera karaoke. 

Admission to the side programme is free of charge.

See the entire programme

Maria Ylipää to host the competition

Nainen punaisessa jakussa nojaa lasiseen kaiteeseen

Maria Ylipää will host the Mirjam Helin competition in 2024. Photo: Petri Summanen

The competition will be hosted by the Finnish actress/singer Maria Ylipää, known for her numerous roles in musical theatre, film and TV. Ylipää is a versatile performer, at home on stage as a vocal soloist with jazz bands, big bands and symphony orchestras alike. 

Singers from 25 countries to the international Mirjam Helin competition

Based on video pre-screening, the Mirjam Helin competition selected 56 out of 485 applicants for the competition in Helsinki next June. Altogether 61 nationalities were represented among the applicants.

Soile Isokoski, opera singer and chair of the Mirjam Helin competition jury is delighted to see that the competition attracted such highly promising and talented singers.

“Naturally, the first criterion is the applicant’s voice, but this is just the starting point. We look for singers who perform the music as it is intended but who also go beyond the notes, bring the song to life and master all the different genres. Verdi and Mozart cannot be sung in the same way,” Isokoski says.

South Korea has the highest number of applicants accepted to the competition, thirteen in total. Four of the competitors are from Finland. The competitors represent 25 nationalities, with participants from countries such as Armenia, Germany, Costa Rica, China, the United States, Croatia and Australia. For a full list of competitors, see mirjamhelin.fi. 

The preliminary competition with piano accompaniment will take place from 3 to 6 June 2024. The jury selects 16–20 singers for the semifinals, and six will be eligible for the orchestral finals on 12 June. In the orchestral finals, the singers will perform with the Helsinki Philharmonic, led by Sir Mark Elder.

The jury members are soprano Dawn Upshaw, mezzosoprano Randi Stene, baritone Bo Skovhus, pianist Keval Shah and chair, soprano Soile Isokoski.

The Mirjam Helin competition is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The winner will be awarded the first prize of 50,000 euro; the second prize is 40,000 euro, the third prize 30,000 euro, and the other three finalists will receive 10,000 euro each. The finalists will also have opportunities to perform at Finnish music festivals and with Finnish orchestras.

The Finnish Cultural Foundation has been organizing the international Mirjam Helin competition since 1984. The competition is founded on Mirjam ja Hans Helin’s large donation. Professor Mirjam Helin’s (1911–2006) aim was to establish an international singing competition in Finland and to make it the most prestigious competition globally. 

Mirjam Helin Singing Competition