{"id":1215,"date":"2025-09-28T12:15:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T12:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2025-09-28T17:52:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T17:52:55","slug":"italian-soprano-gesua-gallifoco-wins-first-prize-at-x-concurso-internacional-de-canto-alfredo-kraus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/italian-soprano-gesua-gallifoco-wins-first-prize-at-x-concurso-internacional-de-canto-alfredo-kraus\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian soprano Gesua Gallifoco wins first prize at X Concurso Internacional de Canto Alfredo Kraus"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Sopranos Lina Tsiklauri (Georgia) and Jessica Ricci (Italy) took second and third place<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The nine finalists performed at a gala show with an audience, accompanied by Orquesta Filarm\u00f3nica de Gran Canaria, conducted by maestro \u00d3liver D\u00edaz<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fundaci\u00f3n Internacional Alfredo Kraus (FIAK), organiser of the X Concurso Internacional de Canto Alfredo Kraus (X CICAK), and the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, announced that Italian soprano <strong>Gesua Gallifoco <\/strong>had won <strong>first prize <\/strong>of the singing competition after deliberation by the jury, chaired by Canary Islands soprano <strong>Yolanda Auyanet<\/strong>, at a gala performance with an audience on Saturday 27 September at Auditorio Alfredo Kraus Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.<\/p>\n<p>The other placegetters of the X CICAK were soprano <strong>Lina Tsiklauri<\/strong>, from Georgia, who took <strong>second prize<\/strong>, and Italian soprano <strong>Jessica Ricci<\/strong>, winner of the <strong>third prize<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Official Prizes, the following Special Prizes were awarded at the gala: baritone <strong>Hae Kang<\/strong>, from South Korea, had a double win at the competition, taking the <strong>Audience Prize <\/strong>and the<strong> Prize for the Best Zarzuela Singer<\/strong>, provided by Legado Maestro Sergio Alonso CB; the winner of the second official prize, soprano <strong>Lina Tsiklauri<\/strong>, also had a double win, taking the <strong>Prize for the Best Opera Singer<\/strong>, provided by Fundaci\u00f3n de Arte y Pensamiento Mart\u00edn Chirino; and Colombian mezzosoprano <strong>Paola Leguizam\u00f3n<\/strong> took the <strong>Prize for the Best Belcanto Singer<\/strong>, provided by Bodega El Grifo on its 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>nine singers<\/strong> who participated in the final gala performance of the X CICAK were chosen from the 82 contestants assessed in the Semi-final Round, held at Auditorio Alfredo Kraus from Sunday 21 to Tuesday 23 September. The 82 singers earned their place in the Semi-final by taking part in the Preliminary Rounds held in Madrid, Florence and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, or had direct entry into the Semi-final after finishing as finalists or winners of other international singing competitions, under the rules of the X CICAK.<\/p>\n<p>For the tenth singing competition, the organisers of the CICAK received <strong>143 applications from 31 countries<\/strong> by the closing date of 30 June, beating all previous records.<\/p>\n<p>The nine finalists who had the opportunity to perform at the final gala with the Orquesta Filarm\u00f3nica de Gran Canaria, directed by \u00d3liver D\u00edaz, were <strong>Hae Kang <\/strong>(baritone \/ South Korea), <strong>Lina Tsiklauri <\/strong>(soprano \/ Georgia), <strong>Vladyslav Tlushch <\/strong>(baritone \/ Ukraine), <strong>Gesua Gallifoco <\/strong>(soprano \/ Italy), <strong>Mattia Lee <\/strong>(baritone \/ South Korea), <strong>Paola Leguizam\u00f3n <\/strong>(mezzosoprano \/ Colombia), <strong>JinHong Moon <\/strong>(baritone \/ South Korea), <strong>M\u00f3nica Redondo <\/strong>(mezzosoprano \/ Spain) <strong>and Jessica Ricci <\/strong>(soprano \/ Italy).<\/p>\n<p>The members of the jury chaired by <strong>Yolanda Auyanet<\/strong> included representatives from the collaborating theatres, <strong>Isamay Benavente <\/strong>(director of Teatro Nacional de La Zarzuela, Madrid), and <strong>Giovanni Vitali <\/strong>(Casting Manager of Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence), alongside <strong>Alessandro Galoppini <\/strong>(Casting Manager of Teatro alla Scala, Milan), <strong>Alessandro Di Gloria <\/strong>(Casting Manager of Teatro dell\u2019Opera, Rome), <strong>Javier Men\u00e9ndez <\/strong>(Manager of Teatro de la Maestranza, Seville) and <strong>Ulises Ja\u00e9n<\/strong> (General and Artistic Manager of \u00d3pera de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria \/ ACO).<\/p>\n<p>Also participating at the prize giving were <strong>Antonio Morales M\u00e9ndez<\/strong>, President of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria; <strong>Rosa Kraus Ley<\/strong>, Chair of the Fundaci\u00f3n Internacional Alfredo Kraus; <strong>Yolanda Auyanet<\/strong>, jury Chair, joined by the members of the jury; and representatives of the collaborating entities for this year\u2019s competition: <strong>Jes\u00fas Casta\u00f1o<\/strong>, Director of the Fundaci\u00f3n Mart\u00edn Chirino; Carmen Alonso S\u00e1nchez, granddaughter of composer Francisco Alonso L\u00f3pez, representing Legado Maestro Alonso CB; and <strong>Ferm\u00edn Otamendi<\/strong>, owner of Bodegas El Grifo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prizes and invitations to perform <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>three Official Prizes awarded by the X CICAK <\/strong>were for <strong>14,000<\/strong>,<strong> 12,000 and 10,000 euros<\/strong>, plus a diploma and a <strong>medal <\/strong>designed by <strong>Gara Mart\u00edn Kraus<\/strong>, granddaughter of Alfredo Kraus.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, <strong>four Special Prizes<\/strong> were awarded: the <strong>Audience Prize<\/strong>, for the most voted singer at the Final Round, of \u20ac2,500 and a diploma, provided by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria; the <strong>Prize for the Best Opera Singer<\/strong>, of \u20ac2,500, a medal and a diploma, provided by Fundaci\u00f3n Mart\u00edn Chirino de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; the <strong>Prize for the Best Zarzuela Singer<\/strong>, of \u20ac2,000, a plaque and a diploma, provided by Legado Maestro Alonso CB; and the <strong>Prize for the Best Bel Canto Singer<\/strong>, of \u20ac2,000, a trophy and a diploma, provided by Bodega El Grifo.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gs\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<div id=\":bx\" class=\"ii gt\">\n<div id=\":bw\" class=\"a3s aiL \">The finalists will also have the opportunity to receive invitations to auditions and\/or productions, concerts and recitals from the members of the jury and the theatres they represent.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sopranos Lina Tsiklauri (Georgia) and Jessica Ricci (Italy) took second and third place\u00a0 The nine finalists performed at a gala show with an audience, accompanied by Orquesta Filarm\u00f3nica de Gran [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2025-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1217,"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/1217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicakraus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}