Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod

Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod (born 25 May 1987) is an American-Israeli operatic soprano who made an international career.

Life and career
Akselrod was born in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. She studied at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Israel and at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in New York City.

She appeared in the U.S. at the Opera Moderne in New York City and the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado. She won the 2009 Buchman-Mehta singing competition in Tel Aviv. She appeared at Carnegie Hall first in 2010. She made her debut in Europe at the 2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival. She performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2012. In 2013, she won the Internationaler Hilde-Zadek-Gesangswettbewerb, leading to her engagement at the Junges Ensemble of the Theater an der Wien for two years.

Her roles first included Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, the First Boy in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Despina in Così fan tutte, and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, She performed the roles of Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen, the title role in Thaïs and Marfa in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride. At the Opera Moderne she appeared as the Bubikopf in Victor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis. She performed at the Wiener Kammeroper, the second house of the Theater an der Wien, as Tamiri in Leonardo Vinci Semiramide. She appeared as Clorinde in Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, followed by Servilia in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, and a solo recital.

Awards and competitions
Akselrod won prizes at competitions in the U.S., Turkey, Israel and Austria:
 * 2021 Lotte Lenya Competition, New York City, third prize
 * 2020 Kurt Weill Foundation of Music, New York City, Trustees' Award
 * 2019 Global Music Awards, California, Silver Medalist
 * 2018 Lotte-Lenya-Wettbewerb, Lys-Simonette-Preis


 * 2015 International competition of the Güzin Gürel Arts & Science Foundation, Istanbul, second prize
 * 2013 Internationaler Hilde-Zadek-Gesangswettbewerb, Vienna, first prize


 * 2009 Buchman-Mehta singing competition, Tel Aviv, first prize.