Soprano Valentina Nafornita from Moldova has triumphed in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 competition. The 24-year-old also won the audience prize, voted for by listeners and TV viewers. She was among five finalists performing before a jury at St David's Hall in Cardiff on Sunday, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a BCC website. Meeta Raval from England, Olysya Petrova from Russia, Hye Jung Lee from South Korea and Andrei Bondarenko from Ukraine also competed for the £15,000 main prize. Valentina Nafornita performed a program of composers Donizetti, Dvorak and Gounod to win over the panel of judges. As well as the main prize, the audience prize of £2,000 was also awarded to her. Afterward, the singer said: "I am so happy, I feel I'm in heaven right now. It is everything to me." Six hundred opera and concert singers auditioned for a place in the competition. Twenty singers from around the world took part in the week-long biennial contest last week. The event was established in 1983 by BBC Cymru Wales. Past winners include Karita Mattila, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ekaterina Scherbachenko. Valentina Naforniţa graduated from the Chisinau Music College “Stefan Neaga” in 2006. Afterward, she studied singing at the National Music University of Bucharest. Valentina Nafornita was a pupil of the famous soprano Maria Slatinaru-Nistor. Currently, she is a soloist of the Bucharest National Opera. .