Melbourne Uni student wins top honour at national German song competition

Melbourne Uni student Eleni Calypso Gerostamoulos has taken location the Robert Salzer Foundation Award astatine the 2026 National Liederfest, a German Art τραγούδι contention showcasing elite singers and pianists.

The third procreation Greek-Australian, is undertaking a Bachelor of Music astatine the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne).

“I consciousness so honoured and grateful to person received this award,” she told Neos Kosmos.

Eleni entered the two-day contention to strengthen her instauration successful German Classical Voice repertoire, with small anticipation of progressing beyond the archetypal heats.

“It was rather breathtaking (and pleasantly surprising) to person been asked to execute successful the finals the adjacent day, which was such a wonderful experience,” she added.

“It besides conscionable feels very rewarding to person been recognised for each of the mentation and hard work I enactment into my repertoire for the competition.”

Her grant win is besides notable arsenic it is typically presented to postgraduate students and young nonrecreational performers – she is successful the 2nd year of her course. For the competition, Eleni performed challenging compositions from mid-late 19th Century by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf and Franz Schubert.

The judging sheet acknowledged Eleni’s expressive and affectional storytelling with an fantabulous observance of the composers’ dynamics.

“German is rather a communal connection successful classical vocal repertoire,” Eleni said.

“I already person rather an affinity for languages, from speaking Greek since a young age, and having studied French astatine a VCE level, so I truly bask singing successful antithetic languages.

“I besides person a passionateness for singing Greek classical repertoire, and much recently, I person been researching and singing songs from 20th period Greek Operetta, which is such a beautiful, yet lesser-known genre of euphony that deserves a acold wider audience.”