Armenian singer Hovhannes Nersesyan got the first prize of the IX International Rimsky-Korsakov Young Opera Singers’ Competition that was held Tikhvin, the great Russian composer’s native town.

Nersesyan is a singer of Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet after Alexander Spendiaryan.

Fifteen performers have been chosen for the chamber music section and forty-four competitors for opera from towns and cities throughout Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia and China.

This year, for the first time the competition had two focal points – chamber music and opera performance.