30th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition 2011 that is held in Vienna from June 27 till July 3, 2011 was organized thirty years ago by Hans Gabor, the founder and permanent artistic director of the Vienna Chamber Opera. Today it is one of the most prestigious operas in the world. Hans Gabor has always payed attention to the search and development of the young singing talents. From the day of its foundation, Belvedere has been the contest of the new type, where the participants have the opportunity to get acquainted with the theatre agents and the leaders of the largest European theatres that could help them in building their professional career.

About 3000 young performers participated in qualifying rounds of the anniversary 30th contest Belvedere. As a result of the selection 159 performers from Russia, South Korea, the USA, Turkey and other countries came to the final part of the contest to Vienna.

The heads of the ‘The Metropolitan Opera’, the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Vienna State Opera were the members of the jury.

The contest was held in the Vienne Chamber Hall, and the final, with 13 participants in it, including the Belarussian Ilya Silchukov, - in the legendary hall of the Vienna Town Hall.

Besides the three main prizes on the Belvedere for the finalists there are some supplementary ones. The leading soloist of the Belarussian Bolshoi Theatre Ilya Silchukov was honoured with two of them. He became the owner of the prize of the Moscow Music Theatre Helikon-Opera that was personally established by its artistic head and jury member of the Belvedere Dmitry Bertman, and  also he was honoured the special prize named after Hans Gabor.

After the contest Ilya Silchukov participated in the Young Singers Project that is annually organized by the head of the famous Salzburg Festival according to the results of the audition.

This year 11 singers from different countries participated in the programme. During 2 months they visited master classes of the most famous performers of old and modern times, among which there were the German singer mezzo soprano Christa Ludwig, Canadian tenor Michael Schade, the English baritone Simon Keenlyside, Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, worked with coaches, visited performances of the Salzburg Festival.

On August 25 project participants took part in the final concert accompanied by the orchestra Mozarteum, the main symphony orchestra of Salzburg, under the guidance of the chief conductor of this team Ivor Bolton.

The coming performance with the laureate of the international contests Ilya Silchukov will be held on September 18. Ilya Silchukov will perform the part of Mizgir in the opera by N. Rimsky-Korsakov Snegurochka.