Olympic Composer Wins Again!

Olympic Composer Wins Again!

John Psathas won the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, for excellence in composition, at the Silver Scroll Awards last night in Wellington.

It’s a terrific way to top off the year for the composer, who wrote music for the Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies and whose CD Fragments, was named ‘Classical Album of the Year’ at the Vodafone NZ Music Awards in September.

Psathas, was one of four finalists for the SOUNZ Contemporary Award and it was his Piano Concerto, premiered by New York pianist Stephen Gosling with the NZSO in April that won him the award.

The judges said of the work,” its beautiful, sparkling individual and fresh.”

The other finalists were John Cousins of Christchurch, with his multimedia work Say and from Wellington, Michael Norris with his orchestral work Rays of the Sun, Shards of the Moon and Ross Harris with At the Edge of Silence, for chamber ensemble.

Psathas will be familiar to most Wellingtonians now, if not purely for his composing achievements, for the giant billboard ‘John Psathas, Olympic composer and Wellingtonian’ on Wakefield Street.

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ENDS

The SOUNZ Contemporary Award is a project of both APRA and SOUNZ (the Centre for New Zealand Music). SOUNZ administers the award and convenes a jury of four to judge the entries.

The Centre for New Zealand Music (SOUNZ) is a charitable trust which promotes the music of New Zealand's composers through a range of services and projects. It receives major funding from Creative New Zealand, APRA and through PPNZ (Phonographic Performances New Zealand Ltd).

John Psathas Biographies:

http://www.johnpsathas.com/

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