Hard work paying off for English soprano
Posted on 25 July 2017
Back in 2012 English soprano, Louise Alder was the first recipient of The Kiri Te Kanawa Scholarship (£10,000) – an annual award presented by the UK Foundation to a student attending the Royal College of Music.
Fast forward to 2017 and Louise was on a roll – firstly being awarded the Young Singer of the Year award at the International Opera Awards at London’s Coliseum, amidst cheers from the audience when her name was announced and then nearly stealing the show a few weeks later at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World reaching the finals of both the main competition and the song prize. Speaking after the finals Dame Kiri (Patron of the competition) commented “Louise is such a wonderful singer and a very hard worker so I was more than nervous for her as I could see she was so loaded with pressure of performance and competition. Although she performed with distinction she did not win either prize but was awarded The Audience Prize which was a popular choice. For my part all those singers were so close to first prize.....the judges were finding the choices difficult.” (Catriona Morison a 31 year-old mezzo soprano from Scotland, was the winner on the night becoming the first British winner).