24-year-old Egyptian soprano Fatma Said was announced as the winner of the 8th Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition.
Egyptian soprano Fatma Said has won this year’s Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition in Dublin, coming ahead of baritone William Davenport, (2nd prize, USA), soprano Adriana Gonzalez (3rd prize, Guatemala) and soprano Anna Anadarajh (4th prize, UK).
The results were announced on Thursday during a special gala that included six finalists.
The competition is named for Veronica Dunne, who is considered Ireland’s Grande Dame of singing. Born in Dublin, Dunne had a thiving operatic career and then moved on to training young voices and launching a singing competition which is held every three years inciting talents from across the world.
To date, eight editions — spanning over 21 years –of the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition have taken place.
The young soprano is taking the operatic world by the storm. In 2011 she won the second award at 16th International Schuman Lied Contest and the Grand Award at the Giulio Peroti International Opera Contest.
In 2012 she won two prizes at the 7th Leyla Gencer Voice Competition that took place 15-20 September in Istanbul, Turkey — first prize awarded by the competition jury and the audience prize. She already performed at the numerous prestigious stages and she sung in a concert conducted by the renowned Juan Diego Flórez.
Said began her singing studies in Egypt, under soprano Neveen Allouba. Said spent 5 years with Allouba, time during which she won 1st and 2nd prize at the ‘Jugend musiziert’ competition. She then moved on to study in Germany where she enrolled at the Eisler Hanns’ music school in Berlin (under Prof Renate Faltin). Most recently, she received a scholarship to study at the world’s prestigious music academy La Scala in Milan, Italy.
