f.l.t.r.: Tenor Sergey Skorokhodov, winner of the Montblanc New Voices at Stars of the White Nights 2010, Musical Director and Conductor Valery Gergiev and Bass-baritone Shenyang, winner of the Montblanc New Voices at Stars of the White Nights 2010

This weekend, Montblanc is supporting Valéry Gergiev’s “White Nights Festival” of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. At this cultural event with top ensembles from opera, ballet and classical music, Montblanc presents the “Montblanc New Voices at Stars of the White Nights”, honouring the two young talented opera singers Sergey Skorokhodov & Shenyang.

About 50 national and international journalists attended the award ceremony – together with special Montblanc VIP guests and Montblanc friends of the brand as well as Montblanc Brand Ambassador Eva Green.

Montblanc New Voices Award Winners

Valéry Gergiev, star-conductor and artistic director of the Festival and the Mariinsky Theatre, presented this year’s Montblanc New Voices Award award to the Russian Tenor Sergey Skorokhodov and Chinese bass-baritone Shenyang  on June 18th during the award ceremony at the Mariinsky Theatre.

This year’s winner Shenyang is already part of the “Montblanc family” as he was already among the successful participants of the Montblanc Young Singers Project in 2008. With Maestro Gergiev’s nomination of Shenyang for this year’s Montblanc New Voices Award, the Montblanc Young Singers Project is also part of this success story.

Montblanc New Voices Award award winner bass-baritone Shenyang

Currently, Shenyang is enrolled jointly at The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and at The Julliard School Opera Center. Shenyang was the winner of the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and a 2008 winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He also has won First Prize at the International Opera Competition in Verona, the 2007 Verona Orfeo Singing Competition, and the 2005 Verona Don Giovanni Singing Competition.

Montblanc New Voices Award award winner Tenor Sergey Skorokhodov

Montblanc New Voices Award winner Sergey Skorokhodov, a Russian tenor, is as well an outstanding young talent and has gained wide international acclaim as a soloist at the “Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers” since 1999. The same year he made his Mariinsky Theatre debut as Guido Bardi (Zemlinsky’s Una tragedia fiorentina). In 2004 and 2005 he attended master classes conducted by Renata Scotto at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome. Sergey Skorokhodov has been a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre since 2007.

Montblanc New Voices Gala Concert

The event will be followed by the Montblanc Gala Concert with the winners of the 2010 award and the famous Mariinsky Orchestra under the musical direction of Maestro Valéry Gergiev. The virtuosity of the winners’ voices will enchant the curious audience of the „White Nights Festival”.