Global battle of the bow

Sir Michael Hill set up the competition 15 years ago. Photo / Nick Reed

For one long weekend every two years, Queenstown is the hub of the country's classical music world. By next Monday evening, after three days of eliminations, six of the 18 contestants in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition will go forward to next week's chamber music semifinals in Auckland.

Three will then proceed to Saturday's Grand Finale, playing a concerto with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

After 14 years, CEO Anne Rodda remembers a few nervous twitches scheduling those first rounds in Queenstown's Memorial Theatre. "We had no idea what the acoustics would be like," she points out.

"One of our judges, Pierre Amoyal, played a few notes and they were dreadful. But another judge, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, had a theatrical background. He jumped up, pulled the curtains aside and had Pierre stand on the very front of the stage. After that we put the performers in front of the proscenium arch on a jerry-built platform."

There were times, too, when rugby and music came a little too close for comfort.

"The pipes for the changing rooms were downstairs," says Rodda. "Every now and then we'd have to wait for the showering rugby players because of rumbling and gurgling pipes. But the competition has been great for the town. We proved we could set up the infrastructure to mount a major cultural event."

The intensive Queenstown experience draws an audience from all over the country even though the performances are available online at the Michael Hill Competition website. "However, despite that digital audience, thirsty for those 40 hours of streaming, folks still come along to the Memorial Theatre," Rodda laughs.

Once the competition moves to Auckland next week, masterclasses and other events will complement the various concerts, at which Sir Michael Hill himself is invariably a familiar presence.

"He's sitting in the front row at every concert," says Rodda, "getting such enjoyment from the music-making. He's such a dreamer, and he doesn't do things by halves.

"When he suggested setting up this competition 15 years ago I'd assumed it would only be for New Zealand musicians but, no, it was to be pitched at an international level. And, if our musicians want to be evaluated at an international level, they must be prepared to put themselves out there. We're not going to make any allowances."

She is proud that four local players have made it to the Queenstown rounds, including 2003's winner Natalia Lomeiko. Among past winners, 2005's Ning Feng still schedules performances with the APO in between appearing with the likes of the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Joseph Lin, 2001's winner, now leads the prestigious Juilliard Quartet and returns this year as a judge; 2009's Josef Spacek holds the concertmaster post with the Czech Philharmonic.

A first prize which entails $40,000 in cash, along with a 2016 Chamber Music New Zealand tour and concerto spot with the APO would be generous enough. Yet there is also the chance of a CD recording with Atoll Records and this weekend will see the launch of a recital disc by the 2013 winner, Nikki Chooi, featuring music by Ravel, Prokofiev and Gershwin, accompanied by Stephen De Pledge.

One of the features of the Michael Hill Competition has always been the test piece, a solo work written by a New Zealand composer.

This week, on Radio New Zealand Concert, Amber Read will present eight programmes on them, ranging from the first, Gillian Whitehead's Bright Silence to the most recent, Kenneth Young's Gone.

Rodda sees these as "challenging the players beyond the traditional interpretation", but cannot help noting their marketing potential.

"These pieces stay in the competitors' repertoire when they go back," she says. "They're perfect encore pieces and wonderfully exotic, coming all the way from New Zealand."

Michael Hill International Violin Competition

Where and when:

Chamber Music Semifinals, Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, Wednesday and Thursday, 8pm. Grand Finale, Auckland Town Hall, Saturday, June 13 at 7.30pm

On air:

Amber Read presents the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, eight daily programmes, 10am on Radio NZ Concert, from today