Bellini International Music Competition
The Bellini International Music Competition Italy was first established in 1965, and since then has experienced 57 years of glorious history and has become one of the top ten international music competitions in the world. The competition was made not only to bring young vocalists closer to their musical aspirations of becoming successful Opera singers, but also to commemorate a renowned world-class soprano by the name of Maria Callas with the “Maria Callas Special Award”.
Many of the successful world-famous Opera singers today have participated in the competition. This year's international jury board includes the chairman: famous Italian conductor Mr. Sergio Oliva, Vice-Chair: famous Canadian soprano Mary Liu, International Jury: famous Italian conductor Leonardo Quadrino, famous Canadian conductor Mr. William Shookhoff, famous Chinese vocal educator Ms. Ling Meng, famous Italian violinist Mr. Stefano Pagliani, famous Chinese vocal educator Ms. Yinong Long , famous Italian conductor Mr. Franz Albanese, famous Italian baritone Mr. Dionigi Renda, and famous Canadian tenor Mr. Colin Yip, etc.
Nowadays, many of these singers have won the crown of the Italian "Bellini" international music competition, become famous and play actively on the opera stage around the world and made their dreams come true.
The Selection Competitions held every year. Give opportunities to the young singers from all over the world to enter the second-round of the final in Italy and shine their personal brilliance.
Vincenzo Bellini
3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835
Vincenzo Bellini, born Catania, Sicily, Italy—died Puteaux, near Paris, France, Italian operatic composer with a gift for creating vocal melody at once pure in style and sensuous in expression. His influence is reflected not only in later operatic compositions, including the early works of Richard Wagner, but also in the instrumental music of Chopin and Liszt.
Born into a family of musicians, Bellini produced his first works while still a student at the Naples Conservatory, where he had been sent by his father, an organist. Bellini gained the patronage of an important impresario, who commissioned Bianca e Fernando for the Naples opera. The success of this early work led to other commissions. Il pirate (1827), written for La Scala, the opera house at Milan, earned him an international reputation. Bellini was fortunate in having as librettist the best Italian theatre poet of the day, Felice Romani, with whom he collaborated in his next six operas. The most important of these were I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830), based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; La sonnambula (1831; The Sleepwalker); and Norma (1831). La sonnambula, an opera semiseria (serious but with a happy ending), became very popular in the world. Bellini’s masterpiece, Norma, a tragedy set in ancient Gaul, achieved lasting success despite an initial failure.
Bellini lived briefly in London in 1833 and then went to Paris. There, composer Gioachino Rossini’s influence secured for him a commission to write an opera for the Théâtre-Italien. The result was I puritani (1835), the last of Bellini’s nine operas; although handicapped by an inept libretto, it is in many ways his most ambitious and beautiful work.
Bellini’s fame was closely bound up with the bel canto style of the great singers of his day. He strove for clarity, elegance of form and melody, and a close union of words and music. Yet with perseverance he corrected some of the grosser abuses of opera then current. While he subordinated the orchestra accompaniment to the singers and placed upon their voices the responsibility for dramatic expression, his harmony was more enterprising than that of his contemporary Gaetano Donizetti, and his handling of the orchestra in introductions and interludes was far from perfunctory. It is, however, for the individual charm and elegance of his luminous vocal melody that Bellini is remembered.
Artist International Music & Dance Association
Artist international Music & Dance Association is a non-profit organisation registered in Canada 1987. With our Honorary President Maureen Forrester, a renowned Canadian icon and one of the first Canadian arts performers to gain international stature. With her contribution to arts and warm buoyant spirit, she helped generate worldwide respect and praise for the Canadian artists.
In the city of Toronto, where deep-rooted multi-cultural arts and music are gathered and nourished by many world-class and young musicians.
The aim of our association is to promote cultural exchange through different kinds of arts, as well as to produce and present performances and exhibitions that showcase emerging artists through the arrangement of competitions with the establishment and granting of prizes, awards, and distinctions. The main objective is to give young musicians the experience and exposure needed to build a successful career.
