(Photo credit: Marcin Zurawicz)

The Kosciuszko Foundation has announced the winners of its 2024 Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition.

Taking home first place was Polish-American soprano Magdalena Kuźma. She takes home $8,000 and a special performance award offered by the Gerda Lissner Foundation and the Connecticut Lyric Opera. The soprano made her mainstage Met Opera debut in 2023 as Giannetta in “L’Elisir d’Amore” and also appeared in “Dead Man Walking,” “The Magic Flute,” and “La Rondine.”

“I’m very proud of my performance in the competition. In the finals, I competed with singers who did not speak Polish. I so admire how hard they worked to learn beautiful music and difficult diction in order to participate in the competition. My goal as an artist is to present Polish repertoire so that those who don’t know the music come to like it and eventually decide to perform Polish works,” Kuźma said in an official press release by the Foundation.

The Second place and $5,000 went to tenor Michal Butler. He also received a special $1,000 prize for best performance of a Polish work by a non-Polish entrant.

The third prize was given to contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay. She received $3,000 and a masterclass with Tomasz Konieczny.

Mezzo-soprano Rubby Dibble earned a special prize of $2,500 for artistic vitality, and Korean-Australian soprano Gemma Nha was the recipient of a special prize of $1,000 for the youngest finalist.