The final round of the IX edition of the Leyla Gencer Voice Competition, will be held from the 23rd until the 28th of September 2018. The singing contest promoted by the Istanbul Foundation for Arts and Culture (IKSV), by Borusan Sanat and by the Accademia Teatro alla Scala. , and dedicated to the memory of the great Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer, director of the Lyric Academy of Accademia Teatro alla Scala, from its foundation in 1997 until she passed away in 2008.
The jury will be presieded by Sascha Goetzel, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philarmonic Orchestra followed by David Gowland, Artistic Director of the Jette Parker Young Artists Program of the Royal Opera House, Toni Gradsack, casting director of the Teatro alla Scala, Yekta Kara, former director of the Opera department of the Mimar Sinan Conservatory, University of Fine Arts, Christoph Seuferle Director of the Deutsche Oper of Berlin and Alberto Triola, artistic director of the Val d’Itria Festival.
Among the special prizes, one scholarship will be awarded, to attend the Lyric Academy of Accademia Teatro alla Scala
In the past, the competition has discovered some of the prominent stars of the operatic world such as: Nino Machaidze, Anita Rachvelishvili, Pretty Yende, Marcelo Alvarez, Nikola Mijailovic.