N.Z.S.O. soloist won Leeds piano contest

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 18

N.Z.S.O. soloist won Leeds piano contest

The familiar face of the New Zealand-born conductor, John Matheson, will be seen again in the Town Hall when he conducts the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in performances on Friday at 5.30 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m. The “shoppers” concert on Friday will feature the young English pianist, lan Hobson, who won the Leeds International Competition last year. The programme will also include a world premiere performance of Edwin Carr’s Symphony to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Igor Stravinsky. This work was commissioned by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

In Saturday’s concert Matheson and the orchestra will be joined’by the choir of the Royal , Christchurch Music Society, plus soloists — Malvina Major, Heather Begg, Anthony Benfell, and Donald Mclntyre — for a performance of Verdi’s “Requiem.” It is one of four performances of the work that the orchestra and soloists, under Matheson’s baton, will present in the main centres. In each city a local choir will be used. lan Hobson was born in 1952, in Wolverhampton. He began piano studies at the age of five, violin lessons at 11, and organ lessons at 13. At 16 he won an open scholarship to Cambridge University, where he completed the three-year bachelor of arts degree in two years. At the same time he studied at the Royal Academy with Sidney Harrison, and at 17 he became the youngest person in the academy’s history to be awarded the recital diploma in piano. In 1972 Hobson went to the

United States to enter the Yale University graduate programme in music. He studied piano, harpsichord, and conducting. He is now an associate professor of piano at the University of Illinois, where he lives with his wife and son.

In 1978 he won fourth prize in the Leeds competition, after having become, in the previous year, the first Englishman to be a prizewinner in the Van Cliburn Piano Competition. He was later placed second in the 1980 Artur Rubinstein ' International Piano Master Competition, and the 1981 Beethoven International Competition in Vienna. New ballet

The Southern Ballet will open its first 1982 season in its theatre in the Arts Centre next Tuesday. The programme comprises three works, choreographed by Russell Kerr. Each ballet offers a different style and technique. The opening work, “Barococo 82,” illustrates the contrast between the emotional baroque period of art and the light, frivolous rococo period. “Les Syrenes,” the second ballet, classical in style and content, was first presented last year. In the new version the story line is extended, there are new costumes, and additional stage effects,, so that in effect it is a new work.

Finally, there will be a successor to the earlier, frivolous “Ballesque” and “Omage (?).” Russell Kerr’s new madcap ballet, “Commedia Carnaval,” features a few remarkable spirits of the sixteenth and seventeenth century commedia dell’arte

theatre troupes. They bring theatre players with gifts of comedy, pantomime, pathos, love and, of course, dancing. Play explosion New Zealand is experiencing an “explosion” of playwriting talent, according to Playmarket, which has just announced its selection

for the second New Zealand Playwrights Workshop.

Eighty plays were entered. The organisation says they include “a surprisingly large number of highly polished, individual and interesting scripts.”

The six plays selected for workshop treatment by professional directors and actors are “A Street Called Straight.” by James Wallace, of Cheviot; “Couplings,” by Alan Trussell-Cullen, of Auckland; “Household Gods,” by Marcus Campbell, of Auckland; “New Day in the Valley,” by Craig Thaine, of Wellington; “Objection Overruled,” by Carolyn Burns, of Christchurch; “Outside In,” by Hilary Beaton, of Sydney.

Rehearsed readings will also be given of “Eat Me,” by Norman Bilborough, of Motueka, and of “Breaking Out,” by Renee Taylor, of Auckland.

Radio New Zealand, which will join this year’s workshop activities, has selected two further entries, Marilyn Duckworth’s “Feet First” and Harold Ellwood’s “Whakahaha Valley.”

Mervyn Thompson, senior lecturer in drama at Auckland University and former director of Downstage, will lead the work on the scripts

at the New Zealand Drama School in Wellington from May 10 to 16. Art awards The winners of the Caltex Art Awards are Anne Waters and John Rundle. This was announced by Mr Norman Purdie, deputy managing director of Caltex Oil (N.Z.), Ltd, at the opening of the award exhibition in Wellington earlier this month.

The winning entries were selected from 258 paintings, sculptures, and drawings submitted to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Each winner will receive $750.

Mrs Waters studied at the Canterbury University School of Art. Her three entries are all in watercolour. One is a portrait of a young girl; the others were inspired by native forests and the colours and shapes of the plants in them.

John Rundle has had no formal training, but has worked in oils and watercolours for a number of years, and has had several one-man shows. He is a keen tramper and mountaineer, and mountains, among which he spends much of his leisure time, provide him with the inspiration for his work.