2013 Competition > Keeping Up With The Play > Wed 5 Jun 2013

A Thrilling Start to Round III

What a thrilling start to Round III at Auckland Town Hall! This is the chamber music round where each of the top six semi-finalists performs a full piano trio with pianist Michael Houstoun and cellist Ashley Brown. In Rounds I and II the judges saw and heard how the competitors performed solo and with piano accompaniment – in Round III they see them perform in a piano trio.

Each performer had previously selected their repertoire for the competition and this year that means five of the six semi-finalists perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No 1 Op 49 and tonight we heard it performed three times by Canada’s Nikki Chooi, Ioana Cristina Goicea from Romania and New Zealander Natalie Lin. Hearing and watching the three competitors perform the same piece provided audience members with an opportunity to experience the subtle nuances and different styles of playing. We’ll update this blog tomorrow morning with photos from the first night of Round III.

It’s been a busy day for all our semi-finalists. While our top six semi-finalists were busy rehearsing and preparing for Round III, the 12 other semi-finalists had a day off in Auckland and time to relax and rest after the very intense competition in Queenstown.

Tomorrow night we are back at the Concert Chamber in Auckland Town Hall to hear first Wonyoung Jung (South Korea) and then Sarah Christian (Germany) play the Mendelssohn, followed by Boson Mo (Canada) performing Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor.

We’re continuing to live stream the Competition, so no matter where you are, you can tune in. We love hearing from our audience around the world – here’s a comment from our Facebook page from Helmi: “very good competition, watching from Paris. Very happy for Nikki and Boson.”