It is time again for the Hawke's Bay Young Musician of the Year competition, with the final at the Blyth Performing Arts Centre, Havelock North, 7pm on September 22.
Organised by the Hawke's Bay branch of the Institute of Registered Music Teachers, this competition has become an established part of the Hawke's Bay music calendar.
Six talented young musicians - pianists Bonnie Allen, Christopher Eldridge, Anneke Mayhead and Emily Park, flautist Brian Liem and soprano Jess Burke - compete in the final, adjudicated by Wellington pianist and composer Gillian Bibby. Guest artists singing after the finalists' performances will be Anna Pierard with students of Project Prima Volta.
Bibby is a graduate of the University of Otago with post-graduate study in Berlin and Cologne, and has been the recipient of Mozart, Churchill and IRMTNZ Fellowships. She is an examiner for the NZ Music Examinations Board and was instrumental in establishing the Sunrise Music Trust which publishes music by New Zealand composers.
A National Recording Artist for Radio NZ, Bibby is also the president of the New Zealand Composers' Association.
The prizes are generous with a first prize of $1500 plus the Williams Cup and a medal, $750 second prize plus the Walter and Beryl Gollner Memorial Cup and a medal, and a third prize of $500, with additional prizes each for highest placed pianist, vocalist and instrumentalist, and June Armstrong Memorial Prizes of $150 for each unplaced finalist.