National Chamber Music Contest Finalists Announced

National Chamber Music Contest Finalists Announced

Semi-finalists for the 2012 contest are, from Auckland: Repercussions, Sans Souci, Ararat, Mentalstorm, Geist and Menottri-o; from Christchurch: Trio Poeme, Elektra and All’Aperto; from Wellington: Bacewicz Quartet and Wellington College Trio; and from Hamilton: Krasinski Trio.

Also announced today, are the two winners in the composition section – this year is the first year the section has been split into junior and senior sections. The winner of the junior section is Auckland student George Wang with his String Quartet No 1, while Hastings student Marcus Jackson won the senior section with While Dreamscapes Stagnate, a chamber piece written for flute, violin, cello and piano. This year is the second year Marcus has won the composition section in the contest.

Composition adjudicator Kenneth Young said Marcus’ composition was “a good piece – interesting, colourful, rhythmic, formally cohesive. Bravo!”

Marcus (18) performed the piece with his ensemble Dreamscape in the Hawkes Bay regional contest, winning the award for top group in the contest and the Statham Award for the Best Performance of a New Zealand work in the Hawke’s Bay District Contest.

Marcus and George were awarded the SOUNZ prize of $500 and $100 respectively and While Dreamscapes Stagnate will be performed at the National Final.

The New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest is run by Chamber Music New Zealand and celebrates its 47th anniversary this year. The 2012 contest has involved more than 1850 students from around the country. It is the longest running youth music competition in New Zealand and is the only nationwide chamber music competition for young musicians and composers.

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, 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.

The New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest Semi-Finals are on Friday 3 August with the National Final on Saturday 4 August at the Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall. Tickets are available from 0800 BUY TICKETS (289 842) or www.buytickets.co.nz The event is free for Chamber Music New Zealand subscribers.

In presenting the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest, Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges the generous support of The New Zealand Community Trust, ABRSM, SOUNZ (Centre for NZ Music), The Wallace Arts Trust, KBB Music and various regional funders who supported events at district contests.

ENDS

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