2025 Operalia Competition: Romanian baritone Mihai Damian wins top prize

Baritone Mihai Damian, a soloist of the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca, has won the Male Voice category’s first prize at this year’s edition of Operalia, the competition for young opera artists established by Plácido Domingo.

He also won the competition’s Audience Award and the special award offered by the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria, where the competition was held this year.

Twenty-nine-year-old Damian studied at the Gheorghe Dima National Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca, where he pursued specializations in Conducting and Classical Singing. He has taken part in numerous masterclasses led by artists such as Ramón Vargas, Ruxandra Donose, and Leontina Văduva, and has been awarded prizes at national and international competitions. Among the accolades he received are the Second Prize at the Éva Marton International Singing Competition in Budapest, the First Prize at the Nouvelles Étoiles in France, as well as the Grand Prize at the Alexandru Fărcaș Singing Competition, held in Cluj-Napoca. At this year’s Musicrit Gala, he was named ‘Revelation of the Year’.

Damian is the fifth Romanian artist to be awarded at the competition, after mezzosoprano Carmen Oprișanu, who won third prize in 1995, tenors Ștefan Pop and Ioan Hotea, who won first prizes in 2010 and 2015, and soprano Adela Zaharia, the winner of first prize in 2017.

(Photo: Ministerul Culturii Facebook Page)