College claims three of five major awards at Auckland Chamber Music

Last week, thirty-four students competed in the NZ Chamber Music Auckland District Contest. A total of 114 groups took part, with our College represented by ten groups and a further three mixed school ensembles with our students.

Only twelve groups were selected for the finals on Sunday, and our College was exceptionally well represented. Two fully Saint Kentigern groups and two more with our students involved were chosen to progress through.

The highest honour of the night, Best Group Overall, went to Trio Vitesse, featuring College student Isaac Chang on the piano. Their rendition of Destenay’s Trio for Oboe, Clarinet and Piano was elevated and assured, earning them the NZ Double Reed Society Award alongside the top prize.

The fully Saint Kentigern Three Shostateers Piano Trio, Vanessa Leong, Chian Wan and William Xu, received one of four Highly Commended awards for their dynamic performance of Shostakovich. Maodong Li and Maojia Li of The Five Piano Quintet also took home Highly Commended and Best Performance of a New Zealand Work for their Schumann. Rounding out the finalists was Simple Solutions, a saxophone quartet comprising Lara Diprose, Lawrence Liu, Wilson Li and Jaden Lee.

Three of the five major awards went to groups with College students involved. While our students made up around ten percent of all competing groups, they accounted for approximately thirty percent of the finalists.

The standard was exceptionally high throughout, and credit is due to chamber coaches Richard Liu, Miranda Hutton and Mark Hobson, and chamber manager Bridget Larsen. The regional competition follows on 27 June.