The BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition has announced that Michael Christie will lead the Welsh National Opera Orchestra during the event.

Christie will accompany contestants during the final of the main prize competition which is set for June 19, 2021.

“I am thrilled to be conducting for the BBC Singer of the World Competition this, of all complicated years. This truly epic undertaking reminds me of several similar projects I’ve led at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, so I am ready for the challenge of the huge variety of music and the rush of the nonstop performance schedule that goes with a competition like this,” Christie said in a press release. “I also look forward to being one of the people who helps all the competing artists realize their musical vision and elevate them to even higher levels of performance, whether or not they take the top prize!”

Christie won a Grammy in 2019 for his work on “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” which took home Best Opera Recording. He has worked with such companies as Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opernhaus Zürich, Finnish National Opera, Scottish Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Wexford Festival Opera, and Opéra de Montréal.

The BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition is set to kick off on June 12, 2021. Learn more about this year’s contestants here.