The Hartt School is proud to share that soprano Kaarin Cecilia Phelps '15 has been named the grand prize winner of the 2024 Georges Enescu International Voice Competition. This remarkable achievement highlights Phelps’ exceptional talent and dedication to the vocal arts. In addition to winning the grand prize, she received the Henri Nafilyan special prize, a category awarded for the best interpretation of an aria.
Phelps’ victory is a testament to her discipline, study, passion, and the world-class education she received at The Hartt School.
“I’m thrilled about this win; it provides a nice stepping stone for what’s next in my career,” says Phelps about her competition success. “Hartt really started it all for me. It’s where I fell in love with opera and performing.”
The George Enescu International Competition was founded in 1958 in Bucharest and includes three sections: violin, piano, and voice. During the years of the communist dictatorship, this prestigious competition disappeared from the international artistic calendar, only to be revived in 1991. In addition to the three already existing sections, composition was fittingly added to honor the composer after which the competition is named.
In 2002, the voice section was removed from the Bucharest competition and was reestablished in Paris in 2014 by the Société Musicale Française Georges Enesco and the Noesis Association, with the support of the Society of Music Publishers and Authors (SEAM), the Romanian Cultural Institute of Paris, and the Romanian Embassy in France.
“We are incredibly proud of Kaarin’s accomplishment,” said Dale Merrill, Dean of The Hartt School. “Her success at the Georges Enescu International Voice Competition is a reflection of her immense talent and the comprehensive training she underwent while studying at Hartt. We wish Kaarin nothing but the best as she continues her inspiring journey in the opera industry.”
While at Hartt, Phelps studied with Maureen O’Flynn and coached with Eric Trudel, who she credits with introducing her to opera, where she fell in love with the art form. And maintaining her deep connection with Hartt, she currently studies privately with Vocal Studies faculty member Valerie Sorel.