Schools help to keep music flame alive

By WILLIAM DART

I had always felt that Chamber Music New Zealand's School Music Contest was a remote event, but perhaps that was because the finals were always judged in Wellington. A turnaround meant that last August, our finest young musicians were on the Auckland Town Hall stage, playing everything from Webern to Edwin Carr. The winning Garmisch Quartet dashed off a movement from a Richard Strauss Piano Quartet as if born to it.

The catalyst behind the move from Wellington was a new sponsor, the de Croy Arts Trust, which also plays a considerable role behind the Auckland Youth Orchestra and the St Matthews Chamber Orchestra.

One senses a mission here. Robyn Unkovich, the trust's administrator (and, like Adrien de Croy, a violinist in the Chamber Orchestra), assures me the trust is a great believer in the value of competitions in all areas of life, especially music. There are so many valuable lessons to be learned on all levels.

This philosophy could have come from Arthur Hilton, the first president of Chamber Music New Zealand, who instigated the competition 38 years ago to offer youngsters the chance to "love, understand and make music".

John Chen, the pianist with last year's Garmisch Quartet, was one of last year's four top bursary scholars and, a few months ago, was runner-up for Young Musician of the Year.

Looking back on his involvement with the school music contest, the 16-year-old remembers it as "a huge adrenaline rush on the night, and great fun working with other musicians, which you don't always do as a soloist".

Chen is in good company. Previous winners include Michael Houstoun, Gillian Ansell and Justine Cormack, the concertmaster of the Auckland Philharmonia, whose Vienna Trio carried off first prize in 1984. Cormack sees the contest as "a foundation-forming experience and a big part of why I'm still a musician. It encouraged me to reach levels that I might not otherwise have attained."

The event offers a tremendous support for teachers: the winner's $10,000 first prize goes to the school's music department, and can help increase the profile of music within the school. But David Gordon, the music teacher at Diocesan School, sees wider goals. "It is enormously important in that it makes students aware music is not just something you do when you're practising."

And we're talking not of an elite few, but hundreds of committed musicians - the players and audiences of tomorrow.

One hundred groups in the Auckland eliminations were whittled down to eight in the semifinals and four have made it to the Saturday finals, which will be judged by Uwe Grodd, Richard Mapp and Edith Salzmann.

One award has already been decided. Jenny Thomas won the composition section with her September's Scars for Piano Trio, which will be featured in the concert.

Thomas, who will play the cello, describes her piece as "an attempt to catch in music the emotions brought on by the terrible events of last September". She mentions Edwin Carr and Helen Fisher as two local composers she admires "for combining the modern and the traditional".

Although Thomas is aiming at a career on the conducting podium, she may well continue with her composing. Perhaps one day she will clock up an international success, such as John Psathas has scored with his View from Olympus.

After its Manchester premiere last week, the Manchester Evening Standard commented that "had it been in the Games rather than part of the complementary Cultural Festival, it would surely have earned a gold medal for New Zealand".

And, you've guessed it, the 36-year old Psathas is yet another graduate of the school music contest and an enthusiastic advocate.

"Twenty years ago," says Psathas, "the most important thing was that it was possible to write music and hear it performed in front of an audience. Back then the contest was the single outlet for someone who wanted to write."

We've come a long way in two decades and Saturday night's concert should be a wonderful opportunity to see just what has been achieved.

* Chamber Music New Zealand School Music Contest Finals, Auckland Town Hall, Saturday, at 7pm.