Antwerp-based baritone Leander Carlier wins top prize in Dutch ARIA competition
In the prestigious ARIA competition on NPO 1, the Dutch National Opera, the public broadcaster Omroep Max and the MediaLane production company have jointly hailed the Antwerp-based baritone Leander Carlier as the best new opera singer in the Netherlands. The title earns him immediate admission to a course that can culminate in an international career as a renowned opera soloist.
Now aged 23, music has been Leander Carlier's thing since childhood. After all, he comes from a musical family. At first, he was extremely keen to learn the trumpet, but after an orthodontic problem he was forced to put the instrument aside. He then discovered that his own voice was the best instrument for him and he successfully devoted himself to professional singing at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp and the MM Academy at La Monnaie in Brussels.
With his near-perfect performance of the aria Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen (My Longing, my Delusion) from the opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) by the American-Austrian composer E. W. Korngold, Leander Carlier convinced the jury to unanimously crown him the winner of the ARIA competition. For the adjudicators, it was clear to see that he has a lot of potential. Leander himself is immensely happy and proud – and that includes the major role he will perhaps be playing from April 2025 onwards in the opera Dido & Aeneas by the British composer Henry Purcell. Though he is a young performer and is keeping both feet on the ground, he hopes that the course he is about to begin at the National Opera in Amsterdam will ultimately allow him to shine as a soloist in the world of opera.