Scholarship programme for Rotorua music students

Leading New Zealand concert pianist, Katherine Austin. Photo / Supplied

The Rotorua Branch of the Institute of Registered Music Teachers of New Zealand is running its Senior Music Scholarship for the 27th year.

The scholarship is open to students of music teachers from the Rotorua and Taupo Branch who are at grade six level or above and are pianists, vocalists or instrumentalists.

The competition will be held at the Rotorua Convention Centre on Saturday.

The daytime trials start at 10.45am and competitors will perform a 15 to 20 minute programme of contrasting works. Eight pianists and four vocalists will compete. The trials are free to watch.

At the formal evening concert from 7.30pm contestants will choose a five minute bracket from this programme and the six finalists will perform in a second round. Evening tickets are $15.

Students have chosen movements from sonatas by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, pieces by New Zealand composers Ritchie, Lilburn and Sands; works from the Baroque era of Scarlatti, Handel and Bach; Romantic composers Chopin, Schubert and Clara Schumann and songs from the Musicals South Pacific, Guys and Dolls and Les Miserables.

The audience will also be treated to performances by the winners of the Junior and Intermediate Scholarships held in June this year.

The adjudicator is Katherine Austin, a leading New Zealand concert pianist and head of piano studies and co-ordinator of performance studies at the University of Waikato.

The prize money totals more than $2000 with each of the six finalists receiving a share of the prize pool. There is also a prize for the Best Piano Solo and the Best Presentation Cup.