On Wednesday 14 January 2015, at HUSH in Mayfair, the finalists of the International Opera Awards 2015 were announced. These were selected by the jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph.
John Allison was joined on the jury by Peter Alward, Managing Director and Intendant of the Salzburg Easter Festival,Per Boye Hansen, Artistic Director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, Kathryn Harries, Director of the National Opera Studio, Evans Mirageas, Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera and the Vice-President for Artistic Planning for The Atlanta Symphony and Nicholas Payne, Director of Opera Europa.
Also on the jury were Hugh Canning, chief music critic for the The Sunday Times and regular Opera contributor, George Loomis who covers opera and classical music for the International Herald Tribune, MusicalAmerica.com, The Financial Times and Opera, Belgian critic Erna Metdepenninghen, formerly of De Standaard, and a correspondent of Opera, andHugo Shirley, Deputy Editor of Opera, music critic for Gramophone and The Daily Telegraph.
Nominations
Conductor
Semyon Bychkov, Edward Gardner, Lothar Koenigs, Gianandrea Noseda, Carlo Rizzi, Christian Thielemann
Designer
Es Devlin, Klaus Grunberg, Michael Levine, Erhard Rom, Jürgen Rose, Paul Steinberg
Director
David Alden, Calixto Bieito, Robert Carsen, Richard Jones, Christof Loy, Graham Vic
Female Singer
Joyce DiDonato, Anja Harteros, Liudmyla Monastyrska, Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, Sonya Yoncheva
Male Singer
Lawrence Brownlee, Iestyn Davies, Christian Gerhaher, John Osborn. Michael Spyres, Ludovic Tézier
Readers' Award
Piotr Beczala, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Susan Graham, Jonas Kaufmann, Aleksandra Kurzak, Mariusz Kwiecien,
Karita Mattila, Nina Stemme