Seven Wellington Ensembles in New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest Central Regional Final in Napier on Sunday

Seven Wellington ensembles compete in the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest Central Regional Final in Napier on Sunday.

Eleven ensembles from the Central region will compete in the event at the MTG Century Theatre on Sunday 26 June at 11.30am and 4pm.

The winners of each of the five Central region district contests held earlier this month - Wellington, Whanganui, Manawatu, East Coast and Hawke's Bay - automatically qualified for the regional final, with the remaining seven ensembles selected based on merit. Unfortunately the winning ensemble from Whanganui 'Valinor Trio' is unable to compete at the Regional Finals due to illness.

Seven of the regional finalists are from Wellington, with one other ensemble from Whanganui, and the winning ensembles from Manawatu, East Coast and Hawke's Bay. The Wellington ensembles include three groups with two members of last year's national winners - violinist Shweta Iyer performs in Schustrings and Trio Solen, and cellist Bethany Angus play in Schustrings and Wellington district contest winning ensemble, Trio Funky Dumky.

Regional Finals are also taking place in Christchurch on Saturday and in Auckland on Sunday. The top 12 ensembles from the three Regional Finals will compete in the National Finals on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 August in Auckland.

The New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest is the longest running youth music competition in New Zealand and last year celebrated its 50th jubilee. This year it attracted 467 entries from ensembles of between three and eight musicians involving almost 1800 students playing music by more than 300 different composers from Bach to John Lennon and including more than 30 New Zealand composers.

It is the only nationwide chamber music competition for young musicians and composers. As well as organising the contest, Chamber Music New Zealand also arranges coaching and open workshops for ensembles with the support of ABRSM.

This year 16 composition entries have been submitted in the Original Composition section of the Contest including three entries from young Christchurch composers. Auckland-based composer Alex Taylor will select two winning scores (Junior and Senior) and the winning composers will be announced next week. The winners will be awarded SOUNZ cash prizes and a year’s subscription to CANZ (Composers’ Association of New Zealand).

The national contest is well-known for nurturing young musicians who go on to successful musical careers. Iconic New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun competed in the event when he was a school student in Timaru and 27-year-old violinist, Amalia Hall was a Contest winner in 2003 and 2004. Amalia has just been awarded first prize and the overall prize at the 2016 Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artists Competition and was also the Overseas Award Winner in the 2016 ROSL Annual Music Competition.

In presenting the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest, Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges the generous support of The New Zealand Community Trust, University of Auckland, ABRSM, SOUNZ (Centre for NZ Music), CANZ (Composers’ Association of New Zealand), The Wallace Foundation, KBB Music and various regional funders who support events at District Contests.

ENDS

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