Christchurch Trio Wins Chamber Music Contest

Christchurch Trio Wins National Chamber Music Contest

Christchurch’s Wäldchen Trio last night has won the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest for 2009.

The trio of Anita Huang (harp), William Frost (flute) and Kate Oswin (viola) continued Burnside High School’s dominance of the national chamber music contest, winning the competition with a performance of Israeli composer Lior Navok’s Veiled Echoes

The New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest National Final was held in Christchurch as part of the Christchurch Arts Festival on Saturday 1 August. The contest, run by Chamber Music New Zealand, is the only nationwide chamber music competition for young musicians and composers and this year’s entries involved more than 2000 students from throughout the country.

The eight finalist ensembles, four from Christchurch and two each from Auckland and Hamilton, were selected from district competitions and performed before adjudicators Stephen De Pledge, Ingrid Culliford and Martin Riseley and an enthusiastic audience.

The Wäldchen Trio’s three young musicians were ecstatic to have won. Last year the trio received a highly commended award at the regional competition, but this year was their first time in the finals.

“It was a huge surprise,” says William (16). “We knew we had to put on our best performance ever because the competition was so strong and we did. And we had fun.”

Anita (17) confesses she didn’t even hear the trio’s name announced as the winners. “William nudged me and I realised it was us and then I started crying.”

In preparing for the contest, the trio had the unusual opportunity to be able to discuss their performance with the composer of their selected work. “We contacted Lior Navok and talked to him on Skype. We were able to play segments of the piece to him and discuss ideas. That was fantastic.”

Adjudicator Stephen De Pledge said the standard for this year’s contest was incredibly high. “We were absolutely bowled over by the quality and dedication to performance.”

The Wäldchen Trio each received the James Wallace Arts Trust Prize of $1000 and the Arthur Hilton Memorial Prize of a musical text.

Burnside High School’s head of music Hugh Stevenson was also honoured at the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest National Final and was awarded the Marie Vandewart Memorial Award in recognition of outstanding service and commitment to fostering the love of chamber music.

Hugh has headed the school’s music department since 1997 and under his leadership, has entered 165 groups in the contest, with 38 of them making it through to the National Final.

“Hugh has instilled in his students a real sense of professionalism, yet never losing the importance of communicating the joy of playing some really great music in ensemble,” says Chamber Music New Zealand chair June Clifford.

The seven other finalist groups in the National Final were, from Christchurch ‘From Belljung’ (two percussion and two piano), saxophone quartet ‘The Knight Quartet’ and last year’s national contest winner string quartet ‘The Bedrich Quartet’; from Auckland, piano trios ‘Apasionados’ and ‘Leidenschaft’; and two piano trios from Hamilton, ‘Psyrtos’ and ‘CHALYK’.

The winner of the composition section was Dunedin student Corwin Newall with his piece 57 Octaves Below which was performed at the National Final by Corwin on piano and adjudicators Martin Riseley (violin) and Ingrid Culliford (flute). Corwin received the SOUNZ prize of $500.

“This piece is youthful, lively and creative and, at the same time, sophisticated and matures in its technique,” says composition adjudicator Anthony Ritchie. “It demonstrates a very good understanding of chamber music, with all three parts having meaningful and interesting roles to play.”

The NZ Community Trust Chamber Music 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, and more recently, acclaimed pianist John Chen was a past winner and went on to win the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition and the 2003 Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition.

In presenting the 2009 New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest, Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges major funding from the New Zealand Community Trust and Creative New Zealand, and support from the James Wallace Arts Trust and SOUNZ

ENDS

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