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Hard work and dedicated practice has paid off for Catherine Chang (Piano), Sunny Le (Piano), Elsdon Yong (Percussion) and Jason Wong (Percussion) - the four members of the Bartok Quartet Chamber Group - who received a National Silver Award for their performance at the National Chamber Music Finals, held in the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington over the weekend.
Initial entries to the local competition were submitted by video, with the Quartet first being selected to move onto the Northern Regional round, again by video, before being invited to perform in person at the finals in Wellington. While away, all four students were great ambassadors for Saint Kentigern and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Head of Music, Miss Mary Lin said, ‘It was such an inspiring experience for them to mix and mingle with the top musicians from schools around the country, and to receive such helpful feedback from the adjudicators after their performance.’
The students were also fortunate to meet Old Collegian, Sam Rich who is now a percussionist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO). They found Sam to be very friendly and particularly encouraging to Elsdon and Jason, the two percussionists in the Quartet. He offered them plenty of advice about the acoustics and playing on stage at the Michael Fowler Centre. Sam also explained how he turned his Saint Kentigern music experience into a career. He is well remembered from school for his spectacular performances on the marimba, and after going on to study a Master of Music in the United States, he is now playing in the NZSO, alongside his former teachers from University.
The Quartet are thankful to their music coach, Mr Richard Liu, who managed to source studio space in Wellington for last minute practice before giving their award-winning performance at the competition. Well done!
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