Dedicated to the estimable memory of "La Diva Turca" LEYLA GENCER, and held under her patronage before she passed away in 2008, the competition has presented the opera world many a significant talent.

After winning the 6th Leyla Gencer Voice Competition, South African soprano Pretty Yende went on to collect all the major awards at the Operalia in 2011 and launched on a dazzling career that took the world opera scene by storm. Second-prize winner of 2010, Turkish baritone Kartal Karagedik won the third prize, as well as the critics’ award at the Ottavio Ziino Concorso Lirico Internazionale in Rome in November 2011. Coloratura soprano Pervin Çakar from Turkey, who was the third prize winner the same year, recently crowned her international achievements by the first prize she received at the 28th International Singing Competition Maria Caniglia, where Teresa Berganza was the head of jury. The Leyla Gencer Voice Competition's previous winners such as the Georgian sopranos Nino Machaidze and Anita Rachvelishvili, Argentinean tenor Marcello Alvarez and Yugoslavian baritone Nikola Mijailovic are now counted amongst the brightest stars of the opera world.

Click here for the complete list of previous winners.