The 24-year-old Kwong Lai-ling Louise, a 2009 music graduate of CUHK, won three prizes at the International Singing Competition ‘Ferruccio Tagliavini’ for Opera Singers held on 17 April in Graz, Austria. Louise took the soprano prize, audience prize and the second prize. She is the youngest finalist among the 160 contestants and the first singer from Hong Kong to win a prize at the competition since its inception in 1995.

Louise majored in music at the Chinese University and at the same time studied with soprano Ms. Chan Siu-kwan. Her past concert engagements have included the Hong Kong Oratorio Society and Die Konzertisten. After graduation, she furthered her studies in the Royal College of Music, London; and is going to obtain a Master’s degree from the Amsterdam Conservatory, the Netherlands, this summer. At the final round of competition, Louise sang two opera arias: Signore ascolta from Puccini’s Turandot and Ecco l’orrido campo from Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera.