2013 Competition > Keeping Up With The Play > Sun 2 June 2013

Catching Up with Sergey and Ben Baker

We’re nearing the end of day one of Round II of the competition and thoroughly enjoying the superb playing we’re seeing and hearing, and with our LiveStream of the competition, our audience is spread around the world – already we’ve had more than 4500 views of the LiveStream channel.

We popped backstage and caught Sissi Zhang heading onstage to perform.

Meanwhile, 2011 winner Sergey Malov popped in again today on his way to rehearsal for the jazz concert tonight ‘Come Play With Me’ (be quick – there are a very limited number of tickets left). We took the opportunity to grab some special snaps of him (and there are more on our Facebook page).

We also caught up with Ben Baker who is the New Zealand Development Prize winner and has been attending all the sessions and masterclasses. We’ll be posting the full interview on our Facebook page.

Ben (23) was born in Wellington, but left New Zealand when he was eight years old after being offered a scholarship to the Yehudi Menuhin School. He’s now forging a career as a musician and “living the dream” and is finishing his studies at the Royal College of Music, trialling as assistant concertmaster for the Royal Opera House orchestra and performs with The Philharmonia in London later in the year. Ben’s proud of his New Zealand roots and his violin is sponsored by Sir John Todd. If you’re in Wellington on Monday night, Ben performs at The Wellington Club.