Outstanding young talent takes the stage

NZCT Chamber Music Contest 2020

…the future of music in New Zealand.

Happy, agitated teenage chatter filled the foyers and staircases of the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington on Saturday night, as six ensembles, dressed up for the stage, arrived for the National Final of the annual NZCT Chamber Music Contest. Proud family members followed behind, beaming and almost as nervous as the young musicians. As the three judges took their places, the auditorium lights dimmed and the music began, many of us there were moved and delighted that this important event was happening this year of all years, at a time when organisers had faced the greatest logistical challenges since the first Contest in 1965.

Chamber Music New Zealand has presented the Contest over those 55 years and Catherine Gibson, CMNZ’s Chief Executive, was determined it would happen in 2020.  “The minute we went into lock-down, and some of our events and concerts couldn’t take place, for me it was always the Contest. When you’re in moments of crisis [she experienced the devastating Christchurch earthquakes] doing something that has people gathering and giving them a sense of normalcy and something to strive for is really important. Thinking about the young musicians and their families and schools, giving them a platform for those performances was something for us to hold on to.”  

Catherine Gibson, Chief Executive of Chamber Music New Zealand

…giving young musicians a platform.

The 2020 Contest attracted entries from 199 ensembles and 700 students from all regions of New Zealand. It was about half as many as usual but Gibson was impressed by the numbers. “I thought we might be lucky to have 100 groups. The Contest reaches young musicians at all levels – for some it’s the first time they’ve performed on a stage or in this case made a performance video and that’s a big achievement.” Groups rehearsed remotely at first and coaching by top musicians was offered by Zoom, so successfully that the practice may be used in future. District and Regional rounds were judged by video entry. CMNZ  also released helpful video clips on topics like tuning, harmony and rehearsal skills, invaluable resources now available for the future. It was, however, a huge relief for all involved when the Semi-finals and Finals could be staged as live events with audience. 

All finalists were highly polished, most with extensive stage experience. Clearly they knew their chosen repertoire well and some played from memory. Nor was that repertoire conventional; two played music by Ravel, two chose the same Shostakovich Trio and two offered music by New Zealand composers.  Any one of the six could credibly have been named the winner by the three judges Amalia Hall, violinist, pianist Stephen De Pledge and Gretchen La Roche, clarinetist and Chief Executive of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.            

Trio Achilles from Auckland opened the evening with Shostakovich’s youthful Piano Trio in C minor, opus 8 no 1, an authoritative, powerful and mature performance that earned the  m the inaugural runners-up prize, the Helen Young Diamond Award.  Les Apaches from Christchurch took their name from an early 20th century group of composers led by Ravel and performed two movements of his Piano Trio in A minor with a marvellous sense of ensemble and of the composer’s music, an expressive interpretation full of panache.  

The Jerusalem Clarinet Quartet from St Peter’s College in Auckland won both the Audience Choice award and the National KBB Music Award for their entertaining performance of a work by New Zealand-based Californian Carvin Knowles. The virtuosic piece, Fragments of the Megillat Purim, was rich with Jewish folk styles and captured the audience with its stylish theatricality.

Trio Glivenko, another Auckland ensemble, also chose the Piano Trio by the 16-year-old Shostakovich. This was an outstanding performance, and although it did not capture the judges’ vote, the audience was impressed by a brilliantly conceived interpretation of a bleak work.

The colourful Virtuoso Strings Octet from the Wellington region was the largest ensemble. Confidently led by violinist Toloa Faraimo, the eight musicians played Craig Utting’s rhythmically demanding Suite from memory in a polished and engaging presentation.  

The winning ensemble Ravelation, backstage with MC of the Contest Clarissa Dunn of RNZ Concert

(From left) Shanita Sungsuwan (viola), Jack Moyer (cello), Clarissa Dunn, Enshean Lin (violin), Peter Gjelsten (violin).

It was the sole string quartet that took the Wallace Foundation Platinum Award for the winning ensemble. The Wellington quartet chose the punning name Ravelation and played the first and last movements of Ravel’s popular String Quartet in F. The musicality of the performance, with tender passion in the first movement and urgent virtuosic drama in the fourth, and the ensemble’s sensitive rapport captured both judges and audience.

Before the happy award ceremony came a performance of the winning work from the Senior Composition section, a humorous and skilful theatrical work called Virtues of a Teenager by Zachariah Jans from the Bay of Plenty. Professional Wellington musicians captured the element of ‘spoof’ this talented young composer was seeking and ended the programme on a cheerful note.

The outstanding talents on display are reason for us all to be cheerful – the future of music in New Zealand is certainly in the hands of inspiring young musicians. Congratulations to them all and to Chamber Music New Zealand for according this event the priority it deserves.

Listen to interviews with the musicians and the winning performance by Ravelation here.