Auckland Trio Wins National Chamber Music Contest

MEDIA RELEASE: For Immediate Release

Auckland Trio Wins National Chamber Music Contest

Auckland’s Sollertinsky Trio has won the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest for 2013.

The piano trio of Ray Ong (violin) from Westlake  Boys High School, Mathias Balzat (cello) from Wentworth College and Delvan Lin (piano) from King’s College were judged top in the country at the National Finals in Wellington at the weekend.

The New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music 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 1700 students from throughout the country.

This year 12 semi-finalist ensembles – six from Auckland, five from Christchurch, and one from Wellington – were selected following 15 district contests. They performed at the Michael Fowler Centre on Friday, with the top six then performing at the finals on Saturday night before adjudicators Bridget Douglas, Andrew Joyce and Diedre Irons.

The Sollertinsky Trio won the contest performing movements two and four from Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No 2, a selection Ray said was challenging for the trio with “many extreme emotions”.

As part of their award the Sollertinsky Trio received the James Wallace Arts Trust Prize of $2000 each.

The winners of the National Award for the Best Performance of a New Zealand Work (in association with SOUNZ and CANZ) was Conspiratus from Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland. They performed their winning piece, written for them by David Hamilton, as a demonstration group at the Finals concert.

Trio Etoile from Christchurch was awarded the KBB Music Award while William Swan (James Hargest College, Invercargill) and Samuel Broome (Lindisfarne College, Napier) received their awards for winning the senior and junior sections of the Original Composition Section respectively.

The NZ Community Trust Chamber Music Contest is well-known for nurturing young musicians who go on to successful musical careers.

In presenting the 2012 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 (centre for New Zealand Music).

ENDS

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