2013 Competition > Keeping Up With The Play > Sat 15 June 2013
THE COMPETITION HITS INTERNATIONAL AIRWAVES
It’s hard to believe it’s now a week since our three finalists took the stage with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra to perform three concerti in the Competition’s Grand Final.
What a stunning night of music that was with Boson Mo playing Prokofiev, followed by Nikki Chooi performing Sibelius and Sarah Christian playing Brahms.
Canadian Nikki Chooi was announced the winner of the 2013 Competition, with Sarah Christian (Germany) second and Boson Mo (Canada) third.
Fourth placegetter was Wonyoung Jung (South Korea), with Ioana Cristina Goicea (Romania) fifth and New Zealand’s Natalie Lin in sixth. Sarah won the Chamber Music prize and Natalie won the Audience Prize. Australian Sujin Park won the Bergonzi Violin for two years.
Nikki told us afterwards he was delighted at the win and “it’s a dream come true.” Also delighted was judge Ida Kavafian – Nikki’s teacher. Ida said later that it had been incredibly difficult not to have contact with her student at all during the Competition.
“Usually I would be by his side and supporting him with advice and not being able to do that was very hard for both of us.”
Nikki’s win has gained attention from the international media and he’s featured in the prestigious online publications The Violin Channel and The Strad, as well as in the Victoria Times in Canada. On Monday (NZ time), Canada Broadcasting Service’s Radio Two is playing Nikki and Boson’s finals performances. You can tune in at http://music.cbc.ca/.
We’ve now farewelled almost all our semi-finalists. Boson Mo stayed on for a week’s holiday and he and Natalie Lin popped in to the Auckland district finals of Chamber Music New Zealand’s NZ Community Trust Chamber Music Contest. Natalie says the contest inspired her in her choice of career as a professional musician (she was in the winning ensemble in 2005). Natalie and Boson popped backstage to wish St Cuthbert’s College ensemble Mentalstorm luck for their performance (they received a highly commended and this week will hear whether they will be performing in the National Finals in August).
