Glivenko Wins National Chamber Music Contest

Wellington's Trio Glivenko Wins National Chamber Music Contest

Wellington ensemble Trio Glivenko has won the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest for 2015 – the first time a Wellington ensemble has won the contest for many years.

Trio Glivenko were named the winners of the national contest at the National Finals held at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington this weekend and the win has sent Chamber Music New Zealand staff digging through the history books to find the last Wellington win.

In the recent past the contest has been dominated by Auckland and Christchurch ensembles. This year the 12 semi-finalist ensembles included six from Auckland, three from Christchurch, two from Wellington and one from Whangarei. The semi-finalists performed for the adjudicator panel on Saturday and six ensembles went through to the Final on Sunday afternoon.

The trio – Shweta Iyer (violin), Bethany Angus (cello) and Claudia Tarrant-Matthews (piano) – said they were shocked and proud to have won. “It’s been a lot of work, but so much fun. It’s awesome winning, but this has really defined the year for us,” Shweta (16) said.

The trio won the contest performing Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No 1, a work which Claudia discovered.

“I had been listening to Shostakovich’s second piano trio and hadn’t heard the first, then came across it on Youtube and decided it was the one,” Claudia (17) said.

Adjudicator panel spokesperson Bridget Douglas said the adjudicators had looked for an ensemble which played the notes “off the page. We wanted to see and hear that emotional intensity and we were looking for a group which showed that musical maturity and depth that stood out.”

Trio Glivenko received the Arthur Hilton Platinum Award and each member of the trio received the Wallace Arts Trust Prize of $1000 each.

Cube from Auckland was awarded the KBB Music Award – an award given to groups including wind, brass or percussion instruments; while Auckland’s Riley Cahill (Westlake Boys’ High School) and Wellington’s Benjamin Sneyd-Utting (Tawa College) received their awards for winning the senior and junior sections of the Original Composition Section respectively. Riley’s work The Lightning in Me for was performed at the Final by Une Année Sans Lumière, a sextet from Westlake Boys’ and Girls’ high schools.

A new Audience Prize was introduced for the 2015 contest with the audience in Wellington and online invited to text vote. The Audience Prize was awarded to Christchurch saxophone quartet Papricca.

Well-known New Zealand flautist and music educator Ingrid Culliford was awarded the Marie Vandewart Memorial Award, an award given in recognition of outstanding service and commitment to fostering the love of chamber music.

The winners of the National Award for the Best Performance of a New Zealand Work (in association with SOUNZ and CANZ) was Cantus Bellorum from Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland. They performed their winning piece, Anthony Young’s Invocation, as a demonstration group at the Finals concert.

The New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest National Finals, run by Chamber Music New Zealand, celebrates its 50th Jubilee this year and is the only nationwide chamber music competition for young musicians and composers. This year attracted 472 entries from around the country involving more than 1800 students who competed in district and regional contests in June to select 12 semi-finalists to compete at the National Finals.

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 acclaimed pianist John Chen is also a past winner. He went on to win the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition and the 2003 Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition and in 2009, his ensemble, Saguaro Trio won the International Chamber Music Competition in Hamburg, Germany. Violinist Natalie Lin, who placed sixth in the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, was a member of the winning ensemble in 2005.

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 support events at District Contests.

ENDS

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