Kathleen O'Mara wins 2025 Queen Sonja Singing Competition.

The article focuses on the 2025 Queen Sonja Singing Competition held in Oslo, where soprano Kathleen O’Mara (USA) won the €50,000 First Prize for her performance of Strauss’s Arabella. The competition featured 12 finalists performing with the Oslo Philharmonic under conductor Nicholas Carter, who is set to become general music director at Stuttgart Staatsoper. Other notable finalists included bass-baritone Vladyslav Buialskyi (Ukraine), mezzo-soprano Meridian Prall (USA), and soprano Justyna Khil (Poland), with Norwegian soprano Hannah Edmunds receiving the Ingrid Bjoner Prize for the best Norwegian participant. The jury voted confidentially without discussion, leading to some surprise in the final placements.