Monday 1 June 2026 

Due to illness with one of the collaborative pianists, a last minute change has been made to the Michael Hill International Violin Competition 2026 schedule.

This afternoon’s session – Round II, Session 4 – the final segment of the quarter-finals in Queenstown, will now be broken into two separate events.

Competitors 13 and 15, Emmalena Huning (Perth) and Yebin Yoo (New York), will perform this afternoon at 3.15pm and 4.40pm NZST respectively.

Competitors 14 and 16, Ruiyi Wang (Shanghai) and Xunyue Zhang (Berlin), will perform on the morning of Tuesday 2 June at 10.00am and 11.30am respectively, at the Queenstown Memorial Centre.

The semi-finalist announcement will now take place on the afternoon of Tuesday 2 June.

Executive Director Anne Rodda says, “All the competitors are well and have been very flexible regarding this unfortunate disruption. We wish our pianist the very best for their recovery and thank everyone for their patience and understanding, especially those stepping in to support the final competitors.”

All ticket holders for Round II Session 4 are welcome to return to the Queenstown Memorial Centre on Tuesday 2 June for the final two performances.