Conductor Wins Performance Music Scholarship

Media Release 27 May 2009

Conductor Wins Performance Music Scholarship

Conductor Gemma New, a University of Canterbury Bachelor of Music with Honours student, is the winner of the Patricia Pratt Scholarship in Musical Performance for 2009.

Gemma, awarded US$35,000 for the first year, will use the scholarship to travel to Baltimore to commence a two-year master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Peabody Institute, John Hopkins University, where she will study under maestro Gustav Meier. Gemma was offered a place at the institute after travelling to the United States earlier this year to audition.

“This is the best course for orchestral conducting in the US, and I am thrilled to be offered such a competitive place,” Gemma says.

The 23-year-old completed her Bachelor of Music in violin performance at the University of Canterbury in 2008, while also studying orchestral conducting, mathematics and German.

Gemma is assistant conductor for the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Christchurch Youth Orchestra. She has received several scholarships and awards for her musical talent, more recently the NZSO National Youth Orchestra Reeve’s Award (2008), the Adam Chamber Music Summer School Scholarship (2008) and the University of Canterbury Alabaster Knowles Prize for Music (2007).

A former Wellington resident, Gemma’s first conducting project was at age 16 when she formed and conducted a junior orchestra at Marsden Collegiate School. In 2007 she organized and conducted her first public concert with the University of Canterbury Montana String Orchestra.

Gemma is the ninth major winner of the Patricia Pratt Scholarship established by Annette Campbell-White in memory of her mother. A New Zealander, Ms Campbell-White now resides in the United States and funds the scholarship through the Kia Ora Foundation.

Administered by the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, the Patricia Pratt Scholarship aims to assist outstanding music performers who have completed an honours degree in musical performance in this country to continue their development at an international music school.

The Kia Ora Foundation has established a new award, the Kia Ora Foundation Travelling Scholarship in Music, which was awarded for the first time this year to violist Helen Bevin, a Victoria University of Wellington graduate.

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