Piano Contest This Year

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31750, 6 August 1968, Page 12

Piano Contest This Year

The Christchurch Civic Music Council, after the success of its last concerto competition, is planning another competition for December and March—but this time it will be restricted to pianists.

The restriction has been imposed because of the difficulties encountered in making comparative judgments of the variety of instrumentalists entered in the previous competition—22 pianists, two violinists, five cellists, four flautists, one clarinettist and one oboist.

Next year pianists will be excluded from the competition, and this pattern will be continued in alternating years.

The preliminaries for this year’s competition will be in December, and the finals will be held in March. Entrants will be required to play, with piano accompaniment only, two or three movements from a concerto approved by the council.

The first prize will be $3OO, and there will be a second prize of $lOO and a third prize of $5O. Entries will close on August 31. Finalists in the last competition were accompanied by the Christchurch Civic Orchestra, and the council hopes to make use of the orchestra again in the finals if it can obtain a sponsor to ease the financial burden on it. To this end it will be helped by its decision to reduce the number of finalists chosen this year, from six to three. This will enable it to hold the final on one evening, instead of two, and should halve the cost of the orchestra.

Entry forms may be obtained from the secretary of the council, P.O. Box 237, Christchurch.