Winners announced for Voice of Black Opera Awards

Florence Lockheart
Wednesday, December 7, 2022

British soprano Rachel Duckett was chosen as winner of the competition’s top prize, the Sir Willard White Trophy

Rachel Duckett, along with the competition's four other finalists, was fitted with garments and jewellery created by students at Birmingham City University’s Schools of Jewellery, Fashion & Textiles. (Image courtesy of the VOBO competition)
Rachel Duckett, along with the competition's four other finalists, was fitted with garments and jewellery created by students at Birmingham City University’s Schools of Jewellery, Fashion & Textiles. (Image courtesy of the VOBO competition)

The Voice of Black Opera (VOBO) Awards has announced the winners of this year’s competition. British soprano Rachel Duckett was chosen as winner of the competition’s top prize, the Sir Willard White Trophy, with South African tenor Thando Mjandana taking the Samuel Coleridge Taylor Award.

In a final held yesterday, the five finalists performed with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren, for a jury chaired by tenor and composer Tom Randle. The jury also included general director of WNO, Aidan Lang; BCMG artistic director Stephan Meier; tenor and vocal coach Jean Ronald La Fond; composer Philip Herbert; critic Rupert Christiansen and composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez.

Jury chair Randle said: ‘It was a spectacular evening and a very hard decision, like choosing between oranges and apples. Every one of the singers was a worthy and deserving winner. In the end it came down to those special, indefinable qualities, listening out for something new, something different – the voice that astonishes and surprises.’

Duckett will receive a £10,000 cash prize as well as repertoire coaching with music staff of Welsh National Opera, and a forthcoming concert appearance with the WNO Orchestra. As second prize winner, Mjandana will be given a cash prize of £5,000 along with the opportunity for three performances of a specifically commissioned new work by Daniel Kidane for voice and ensemble with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Each finalist performed at least one contemporary work by a Black or South Asian composer as well as a duet with a leading opera singer. Duckett performed with mezzo soprano Siv Misund, while Mjandana performed with soprano Parvathi Subbiah.

Vincent Osborne, founder and artistic director of Black British Classical Foundation which organises the competition, said: ‘Through their passionate and committed performances at the Voice of Black Opera Final and throughout the whole competition process, all of our finalists and semifinalists have eloquently espoused the cause of greater diversity and inclusion on our stages. I have no doubt that each of them will continue to inspire us for many years to come.’