The World's Biggest Stage Announces Joint Winners

Vocalists Sage DeAgro-Ruopp and Anastasiia Sidorova will share the first prize

For the first time, The World’s Biggest Stage Competition announced two first-prize winners: Sage DeAgro-Ruopp and Anastasiia Sidorova. Each vocalist will receive $3,500 and perform in next year’s 19th Water Island Music Festival in St. Thomas.

The other two finalists, Morgan Mastrangelo and Maria Brea, will each receive $2,000.

Open to all vocalists (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) of all nationalities, ages 18 to 33 (by Jan 15, 2023), the Voice Edition of The World's Biggest Stage Competition saw each finalist perform two songs from Julian Gargiulo's new Song Cycle “Love, War, and Other Viruses.”

The winner was decided 50% by the audience members (online and present at the final round) and 50% by a jury consisting of previous winners of the competition and celebrity jury member soprano, Olga Makarina. You can watch the Final Round of the competition below:

Russian American mezzo-soprano Anastasiia Sidorova recently graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she held the Curtis Friends Board Fellowship and studied with Patricia McCaffrey. As an Emerging Artist at Opera Philadelphia, she made her professional debut as Roggiero in Tancredi and covered the role of Dodo in the world premiere of the new chamber opera, Breaking the Waves, by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek. Anastasiia participated in the Wolf Trap Studio Artist program and has participated in Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, the Music Academy of the West, and the Verbier Music Festival.

Sage DeAgro-Ruopp holds a diploma from the Oberlin Conservatory as well as a BM and MM from the Curtis Institute of Music where she held the Gianna Rolandi fellowship. A 2022 international Astral Artists competition winner, she has performed in concerts across the country with Curtis on Tour and was featured in a Curtis Symphony Orchestra concert under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.