Media release Wednesday 6 May, 2015

ONE MONTH UNTIL MICHAEL HILL INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION 2015 - A VIOLIN DEGUSTATION FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC LOVERS, IN THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH

**Tickets on sale for Queenstown and Auckland competition rounds and final concert** **Other public events include panel discussions and masterclasses** **Text voting for Audience Choice Award from live events and livestream (NZ only)**

In one month’s time, 20 of the world’s finest young violinists will descend on for the eighth biennial Michael Hill International Violin Competition.

The superbly talented group of 18 semi-finalists, who made it through a competition record of nearly 160 entries and grueling selection process, and 17 of whom are female, will be joined in Queenstown and Auckland by the recipients of the New Zealand and Australian Development Prizes, Amalia Hall (NZ) and Markiyan Melnychenko (AU). Semi-finalists will be travelling from , Canada, , Taiwan, USA, Australia, , and .

The revered violin competition takes place between 5–8 June in Queenstown and 10–13 June in Auckland. It is New Zealand’s most prestigious music competition and recognised as one of the finest violin competitions in the world.

Along with the violinists, Aotearoa will also play host to the prestigious international jury – all of whom are worldwide heavyweights in the violin community. The jury for the 2015 Competition comprises Pierre Amoyal ( / Switzerland), Boris Garlitsky (/France), Young Uck Kim (South Korea), Joseph Lin (USA), Susie Park (Australia), Helene Pohl (New Zealand) and Benjamin Schmid (Austria).

Round one and round two – solo and unaccompanied works – will take place in Queenstown from 6 to 8 June, with round three – Beethoven piano trios – in Auckland on 10 and 11 June. The final round concert with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra will fill Auckland’s Town Hall on Saturday 13 June.

As well as the competitive rounds, the Michael Hill International Violin Competition presents a series of extra events, many of which are free to the public. Among them:

• On Friday 5 June, a panel discussion with the international jury, called and their Makers: Past and Present, will explore how much the instrument contributes to the success of a performance and what should young artists aim for when acquiring a violin. • This is immediately followed by another free public session, The Old Masters and New World Makers in which NZ violin maker Dick Panting and European dealer Johannes Leuthold will discuss the merits and options of old vs modern instruments. • At 8pm audiences will be delighted by Welcome Back Winner, where 2013 winner Nikki Chooi will perform a captivating concert with Sarah Watkins on piano. Joining them will be the Development Prize Winners, Amalia Hall and Markiyan Melnychenko. The trio will perform on a variety of violins, old and new. Tickets are available on Ticketek. • On 6, 7, and 8 June at the Queenstown Memorial Centre and 10 and 13 June at the Auckland Town Hall, the Competition will host its Insider’s Guide – free, 30-minute discussions aimed at providing a deeper insight into the challenges presented to the competitors in the repertoire and what the judges will be looking for in the winner. • There is a series of masterclasses in Christchurch, Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland that are free and open to the public. • In Queenstown and Auckland there is also a Classroom Conversation, to which intermediate and secondary school students are invited to meet the artists and discuss career pathways in the classical music industry.

Live and online audience members are encouraged to text-vote for their favourite competitor (NZ mobile only). The winner of the Michael Hill Audience Prize will be announced during the prize giving on the 13 June.

The overall winner of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition receives $40,000, a recording contract, an intensive performance tour across New Zealand and a personalised professional development programme. New this year, the winner will also be invited to perform on Sir Michael Hill’s personal violin, a 1755 Guadagnini named “The Southern Star”, on the Winner’s Tour.

In a short time the Competition has become one of the world’s premium music events. It attracts live audiences of more than 4,000 and its online performance views exceed 250,000 (including 16,000 live streaming).

All live rounds are open to the public – tickets are on sale via Ticketmaster (Auckland) and Ticketek (Queenstown).

For more information, please visit www.violincompetition.co.nz or view the Competition’s Facebook page.

ENDS

For media information, images and interviews, please contact Siobhan Waterhouse on +64 22 126 4149 or [email protected].

EDITORS’ NOTES

MICHAEL HILL INTERNATIONAL VIOLIN COMPETITION 2015 SEMI-FINALISTS (ALPHABETICAL)

Jung Min Choi, South Korea Aaron Timothy Chooi, Canada Anna Filochowska, Poland I-Jung Huang, Taiwan Sanghee Ji, South Korea Mimi Jung, USA Suyeon Kang, Australia Bomsori Kim, South Korea YuEun Kim, South Korea Marie-Christine Klettner, Austria Eunae Koh, South Korea Liya Petrova Konyarova, Bulgaria Mari Lee, South Korea / Youjin Lee, South Korea Ashley Park, USA Elly Suh, South Korea Yabing Tan, China Natsumi Tsuboi, Japan/USA

EVENTS SCHEDULE (OPEN TO THE PUBLIC)

Insider’s Guide - http://www.violincompetition.co.nz/2015-competition/an-insiders-guide/ Masterclasses - http://www.violincompetition.co.nz/2015-competition/masterclasses-and-professional-development/

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL JURY

Pierre Amoyal (France/Switzerland)

Pierre Amoyal is well known to music lovers. He has played with the greatest conductors and orchestras in the most prestigious concert halls of the world. This virtuoso is also the lucky owner of the one of the most beautiful violins ever made: the famous “Kochanski,” a Stradivarius that was stolen from him in 1987, and which was miraculously recovered four years later by the Italian “Carabinieri”.

When Amoyal was only twelve years old, he completed his studies at the Paris Conservatory with a First Prize. The prodigy then left for Los Angeles to study with the legendary Jascha Heifetz. At the age of 22, he made his European debut with the late Sir Georg Solti and the Orchestre de Paris. In 1985, he made his recital debut in Carnegie Hall, which received outstanding critical acclaim.

He was the youngest musician ever to be nominated as a professor at the Paris Conservatory. Following his move to Switzerland, he now teaches at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg and at the Lausanne Conservatory.

Young Uck Kim (South Korea) Violinist Young Uck Kim, one of the foremost violinists, has celebrated an international career for over 40 years. Young Uck Kim has performed across the , Europe and Japan. He has appeared with virtually every American Orchestra, and he has performed with prominent Orchestras in Europe. He has appeared at many festivals including the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, the Tanglewood Music Festival, Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony and so on. He has worked with many conductors including Karajan, Berstein, Ormandy, Stokowski, Ozawa, Rattle and many others.

Young Uck Kim was born in Seoul and attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Where he studied with the legendary Ivan Galamian.

He was also former artistic director of Seoul Art Center. Currently he is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Seoul National University.

Boris Garlitsky (Russia/France) In 1982, Boris Garlitsky won the Italian Paganini Competition and began his career as a soloist. Since then, he has played, among others, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (with Ignat Solzhenitsyn conducting) as well as the Milan based Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra and the British Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Mr. Garlitsky is an active participator in several international music festivals. He regularly takes part in the Pablo Casals Festival in France, Mostly Mozart in New York, the London Proms, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and ’s Chamber Music Festival at Lockenhaus in Austria. Also, Mr Garlitsky performs for the BBC, Radio France as well as a number of radio stations in , Russia and the United States. He has recorded for RCA, Naxos, Chandos and Polymnie.

Born in Russia, Mr. Garlitsky received his first music lessons from his father, the author of the standard textbook for young violinists Step by Step. He studied with Profesor Yankelevich at the Moscow Conservatory, and afterwards worked as the Concertmaster for the Moscow Virtuosi and the London Symphony Orchestra, the Covent Garden Opera, the Vienna ORF Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic and many more.

Today, Mr. Garlitsky devotes a large amount of his time to education. He holds a chair at two outstanding music Institutes, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and the “Folkwang Universität der Künste”, Essen (). In addition, Mr. Garlitsky offers master classes on a yearly basis at the most renowned music institutions including the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, the Peabody Conservatoty in Baltimore, Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin.

Garlitsky is a member of the Hermitage String Trio (Boris Garlitsky, Alexander Zemtsov and Leonid Gorokhov).

Joseph Lin (USA) An active solo and chamber musician, Joseph Lin’s recent performances have taken him to Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. He has appeared as soloist with the Boston Symphony, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Taiwan National Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, and the National Philharmonic. He is a regular participant at several festivals, including Marlboro and Ravinia.

In 2011, Joseph Lin joined the renowned Juilliard String Quartet as the ensemble’s first violinist. With the Juilliard Quartet, Mr. Lin has recorded Elliott Carter’s Quartet No. 5, released by Sony in 2014.

In 2002, he began an extended exploration of China, spending 2004 studying Chinese music in Beijing as a Fulbright Scholar. From 2007 to 2011, Joseph was an assistant professor at Cornell University. In 2011, Mr. Lin joined the faculty of the Juilliard School.

Susie Park (Australia) Hailed as “prodigiously talented” (Washington Post) and praised for her “freedom, mastery and fantasy” (La Libre, ), Australian violinist Susie Park is gaining worldwide attention for her emotive range and dynamic stage presence. She was violinist of the Eroica Trio from 2006 to 2012, performing extensively throughout the US and in countries including Brazil, , Germany and New Zealand.

With the trio she released a Grammy-nominated album on EMI Classics. As soloist, she has performed with the Vienna Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Memphis Symphony, Korea’s KBS Symphony Orchestra, the Lille National Orchestra, New Zealand’s Wellington Sinfonia, and with the major Australian orchestras.

A finalist in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, she has won top prizes in the Menuhin and Wieniawski International Competitions.

She is a founding member of ECCO, or East Coast Chamber Orchestra, which released its debut album in 2012.

Helene Pohl (New Zealand) Helene Pohl is the first violinist of the New Zealand String Quartet and teaches at the New Zealand School of Music.

She began violin at age four. She began piano study at 9 and as a teenager added viola, clarinet and baritone saxophone (the latter in order to join the jazz band). At 17 she began tertiary study at the Musikhochschule Cologne, where her teacher was Franzjosef Maier, founder of the Collegium Aureum, and her chamber music coaches were the members of the Amadeus Quartet. She continued her

In 2001 she became Artistic Director, with fellow quartet member Gillian Ansell, of the Adam New Zealand Festival of Chamber Music, held biennially in Nelson, which features NZ artists along with international visitors and has become an important part of the Australasian music scene.

Benjamin Schmid (Austria) Benjamin Schmid was born in Vienna and grew up in Salzburg. In 1992 he won the Carl Flesch Competition in London, where he was also awarded the Mozart, the Beethoven and the Audience Prize. Since then he has performed on the world’s major stages with renowned orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam under conductors such as Christoph von Dohnanyi, David Zinman, Seiji Ozawa or Ingo Metzmacher.

Schmid has recorded about 40 CDs and they have received various awards such as the German Record Prize, the Echo Klassik Prize, the Gramophone Editor’s Choice and the Strad Selection. He has also been the subject of documentaries.