By HEATH LEES
Making a career as a concert pianist has always been tough. Nowadays it's virtually impossible.
Every year hundreds of the world's music schools turn out armies of excellent young pianists at a time when the classical concert scene gets progressively smaller and the prospect of appearances shrinks alarmingly.
It used to be said that only one pianist in 1000 could ever make it to the top. Now the odds are more like one in 10,000.
So it's a surprise to discover that Auckland has produced three young, world-class pianists in the past few years, each of them singled out from hundreds of others and poised to achieve the near-impossible by making a career out of playing the piano.
Who knows what could happen? Any one of the three might well become the next Big Name in the piano world.
Bryan Sayer, who teaches at the University of Auckland School of Music, admits he has no idea how, after decades of students who are good but not obvious world-beaters, there have suddenly been three emerging "stars" all at once.
Music lovers in Auckland know them already. There's Henry Wong Doe, who was back in town to give an excellent piano recital at the University School of Music.
Wong Doe covered himself with glory two weeks ago by reaching the finals of the celebrated Sydney Piano Competition from an initial field of about 250 hopefuls. His place in the last six, in company with four dynamic Russians and one Japanese, was a fantastic achievement.
Then there's Chenyin Li, New Zealand's Young Musician of the Year in 1997, who conquered Auckland audiences two years ago with memorable solo appearances and a dazzling farewell recital in the Maidment Theatre. Now studying in London, Li divides her life between concerts and competitions.
Last December she scooped up London's Beethoven Prize, then won the Dudley Millennium Piano Competition, and recently gave a full recital in the French town of Poitiers.
Auckland will hear her in 10 days when she performs in the "Purely Piano" series at The Edge, on August 10.
Stephen Depledge is the eldest of these three Auckland pianists who are knocking on the door of world recognition. After graduating in 1993, Depledge moved to London and quickly captured all the major piano prizes at the Guildhall School of Music, including its supreme award, the Gold Medal.
Despite the enormous odds, Depledge is making his way as a professional pianist. He has performed in London's major venues and his debut recital at the famous Wigmore Hall was greeted enthusiastically by the press.
Depledge now has a healthy list of recordings and live appearances. In October, he too will play for the "Purely Piano" series in Auckland.
Speaking to these three musicians, you can't help but be struck by their willingness to tough it out in a world of huge study-fees, soaring accommodation costs, and expensive journeys to enter competitions just for the chance of being noticed.
Wong Doe says it's not so bad for him since he studies in Indiana, world-renowned for music study but not as costly as a city like New York or London. He is duly grateful for his New Zealand grants but his main source of income is a large scholarship from the University of Indiana.
In return, Wong Doe has to bite deeply into his practice time to act as a graduate tutor for the piano professors.
"Money is always tight," he admits. "You have to give up on luxuries and a good social life to keep making progress."
Already, he is saving to fund his next world competition attempt in September in the English city of Leeds. Previous prize-winners at Leeds have had a career for life.
But there are hundreds of first-class pianists to be beaten first and he admits that a lot of it is luck. "Sometimes your pumping adrenalin level makes you push the music forward too much. Sometimes, in a concerto final, you just don't 'gel' with the orchestra. It's not anyone's fault but you lose anyway. Sometimes you spend so long preparing for the initial rounds that you're not ready enough for the final concerto. So much can go wrong."
Li's next big trial is a Mozart concerto competition, but she feels there are other ways of being noticed.
Agents and impresarios still run the music scene, she says, so through contacts and appearances you can gradually build a reputation with them. But it's shockingly hard work.
"Unless you have at least 10 full concert programmes ready, they won't even talk to you," she says. She accepts the "outrageous" cost of living in London philosophically.
"You can't change it," she says. "Some concert fees come in, and competitions often provide expenses for qualifying entrants. It all helps."
Depledge agrees that concert fees are lifesavers but points out there are often "depressingly large gaps that loom up in the diary."
Interestingly, he feels that having trained first in New Zealand, his piano background is wider and more versatile than the "hot-house" pianists that can be found in the British system.
"But at the end of the day, success depends on a combination of perseverance, talent and luck. Every opportunity, every performance has to be taken seriously."
Despite it all, Auckland's three budding international pianists agree that they are doing what they want to do most of all and that's what's important.
Depledge summed it up. "Yes, it's tough trying to make a career out of piano performance," he says. "It's not a career with a lot of money to offer, but I couldn't imagine doing anything else. It is such a joy to be doing something I love and I'm thankful it's working out so well."
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