Music at the click of their fingers

Edward King, John Chen and Natalie Lin tour as CLIK. Photo / Raymond Sagapolutele

Chamber Music New Zealand has high hopes for the three young musicians touring the country under the moniker of CLIK.

The CMNZ website lauds them as "emerging stars and youthful ambassadors with a world vision", but for CEO Peter Walls, all having triumphed in international competitions, they are quite simply "21st century winners".

The 10-concert tour, which ends in Auckland tomorrow, has pleased critics in its first week, when Natalie Lin, John Chen and Edward King delivered a programme of Gareth Farr, Britten, Enescu and Schubert.

A Hamilton reviewer risked adjectival overload, enthusing that, in their Schubert trio, "the singing quality was evident with carefully delicately intertwined articulated phrases". For the Taranaki Daily News, CLIK gave "an interpretation that demanded attention to every note".

Natalie Lin's international triumph took place on home ground, two years ago, when she made the semi-finals of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, eventually winning the Audience Prize.

"It was a special moment," she remembers. "The competition may be held in New Zealand but it features significant international talent and it was wonderful to be in among that calibre of musician, representing my country."

Lin has enjoyed chamber music since, as a schoolgirl, she took part in CMNZ's annual Chamber Music Contest. "Being a part of it every year really pushed me into this world. In doing so, it also formed the way I think about music and play with other people."

Pianist John Chen and cellist Edward King have also been seasoned contestants in that competition, and Lin reminds me that, at just 16, she played alongside King this year in the ensemble that took first prize.

Lin is now based in Houston, studying for a doctorate at Rice University under Paul Kantor; when not playing violin, she teaches music. "One of the areas I'm interested in is teaching music theory to non-musicians," she says. "Everybody has an interest in music whether or not they're a musician, and to be able to teach these people how music works is something."

Lin is very easily drawn out on the new string group she has formed in Texas, with 15 musicians bonding together under the name of Kinetic.

"It's basically a string orchestra that I lead, playing without a conductor," she explains. "Our approach is very much based on that of chamber music and, for me, goes right back to my school days in New Zealand. We also try to instil chamber music rehearsing techniques. We're a little more democratic, making room for everybody's voice to be heard in rehearsal."

Tomorrow, Auckland will hear the second of CLIK's two programmes. After interval, we will hear Schubert's B flat major Trio and, before that, Chen will play a piano solo by Granados, and accompany King in Ginastera's Pampeana No 2 and Lin in a Douglas Lilburn Sonata 1950.

Lin feels that Lilburn's eminently approachable 1950 work is ideal to mark the composer's centenary as its arch-like structure makes it enjoyable for the audience to listen to. "It goes on a journey and returns to where it came from, starting off and ending with a chorale-like theme."

Lilburn's music has been part of Lin's life since school days and, only a few months ago, she was in the ranks of CMNZ's Turnovsky Jubilee Ensemble when it played his Diversions and Allegro for Strings.

As for the man himself, she proved a little more reticent. "I don't know very much about his biographical life," she confesses. "Only that he was in England. I can hear similarities in his music to English composers like Elgar, Vaughan Williams and even Britten. But there's also a link to New Zealand and the landscape. It's a good combination."

From now on, William Dart's APO reviews will be posted online on Fridays instead of in print on Saturdays so you can read the review more immediately.

Performance
What: CLIK
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, tomorrow at 5pm