After winning $80K in Montreal, these opera singers look to the future

The 2018 Montreal International Music Competition, a contest that bringstogether talented singers from all over the world, wrapped up on Thursday.

This year, participants competed for prizes totalling $270,000 in front of a world-class jury.

The competition was split into two categories this year: art song and aria. Two singers took homefirst-place prizes, bringing home $80,000 each.

John Brancy, a tenor from the United States, took home the art song category prize, while Mario Bahg, a tenor from South Korea, won first place in the aria category.

• Mario Bahg wins 1st prize (aria) at the Montreal International Music Competition
• John Brancy wins 1st prize (art song) at the Montreal International Music Competition

CBC's Jennifer Yoon caught up with Bahg and Brancy to talk about their dedication to their musical careers, and what lies ahead.

This interview has been editedfor length and clarity.

When did you decide that you wanted to pursue classical singing as a career?

Bahg: I first began to learn how to sing at 16 years old with my dad. My dad worked in Korea as a classical singer a tenor. After learning from him for three years, I enrolled at the Korea National University of Arts. I actually considered quitting in Korea;I thought classical singing was too difficult for me. Then my girlfriend, who was studying at Mannheim, told me to come to Germany and to experience a bigger stage. There, I really began to learn.

• 8 outstanding moments from the art song semifinal at the Montreal International Music Competition

Brancy: Singing, and particularly opera singing, chose me along the way. I didn't have a lot of direction in school, but I had a choral director who took a chance on me and heard something in my voice, and he knew that I was destined to do this. I followed that, I trusted him. And one thing led to another, and at 17, I was going to Juilliard with not much planning.

What does winning the Montreal International Music Competition mean for you?

Bahg: Us Korean male singers like to joke that placing first or second at the Montreal International Music Competition actually gets you exempt from mandatory military service. But in all seriousness, I continue doing more competitions because I'm still a student. I need this kind of space where I can grow and study. Coming out here, meeting, and singing for the world-class jury was really remarkable for me. This competition is very big and prestigious and everyone knows about it.

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Brancy: Winning the Montreal International Music Competition is an affirmation that the work that I continue to do with collaborative pianist Peter Dugan is of the highest quality and we're going about it the right way. It's a great thing to have been given this affirmation at such a high level by such an esteemed jury of professionals, and gives me more confidence to know that we are respected and loved by our peers and by our contemporaries and our mentors, and at this stage in our careers, where we are just at the very beginning of what will be the next 30-plus years of working together.

What's next for you?

Bahg: I'll be doing my graduation recital in Germany on June 25. After I graduate, I'd like to study a little more in Germany. I'm thinking about a Solist Ausbildung Programm. This program would be similar to a doctoral program. My dream is really to be a concert oratorio singer, more than an opera singer.

Brancy: I'll be in a production called Lost Highway coming up at Oper Frankfurt, directed by Yuval Sharon, where I'll be playing a lead role. I'll then be going on a tour with Peter [Dugan], throughout North America. I'll also be playing the role of Mercutio in Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet at Gulberkian Music in Lisbon.