U.S. Baritone Wins Belgium Singing Competition

American baritone Stephen Salters won the prestigious Belgian Queen Elizabeth singing contest Friday.

The 26-year-old beat off strong competition from 68 other would-be opera stars in only the third time the contest, part of the 45-year-old Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition, has been held.

The contest has changed annually since it began in 1951. It has included violin, piano and conducting.

Salters joins names like Polish soprano and Mozart specialist Aga Winska, who won the first singing competition in 1988, and Vladimir Ashkenazy, who won the piano competition in 1956.

He takes home $16,000, concert bookings and a recording contract.

Five of the other 12 finalists, who have been competing for the past three weeks as the starting field gradually whittled down, also won prizes, including cash, concerts and recording contracts.

They are Romanian soprano Ana Camelia Stefanescu, American mezzo-soprano Eleni Matos, Bulgarian soprano Mariana Zvetkova, American tenor Ray Wade and Dutch soprano Anja Vinken.