Gencer to be remembered with concert in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Opera artist Leyla Gencer will be remembered with an opera concert.

Singers Fatma Said and Kristina Bikmaeva will perform alongside the Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra at a May 13 concert in Istanbul as part of a commemoration night for Turkish opera star Leyla Gencer.

Said, an Egyptian soprano, was announced as the winner of the seventh-annual Leyla Gencer Voice Competition in a competition held last year at Istanbul’s Hagia Irene. Bikmayeva, meanwhile, is a Russian soprano.

The May 13 concert, titled “From the footsteps of a diva,” will be staged at the Caddebostan Cultural Center. Italian soprano Mirella Freni, acting as jury president, announced the night’s winners. Said, a soprano from Egypt was the big winner of the competition, with soprano Ludmilla Bauerfeldt of Brazil in second place and Jessica Rose Cambio of Italy and the U.S. coming in third. Numerous journalists from Turkey followed the 7th Leyla Gencer Voice Competition, as well as editors and critics from international opera magazines. The jury for this year’s Leyla Gencer Voice Competition included Paolo Arca, artistic director of the Quartetto Society; Fortunato Ortombina, artistic director of Teatro la Fenice; Opera Magazine editor John Allison; Vincenzo Scalera.