Triumph for N.Z. pianist

Press, 14 June 1983, Page 17

Triumph for N.Z. pianist

PA Auckland The New Zealand pianist, Patrick O’Byrne, has won the international Jose Iturbi piano competition in Valencia, gaining a recording contract, a substantial cash prize, and a concert tour of Spain. Mr O’Byrne, aged 27, a graduate of the University of Auckland, was the unanimous choice of the judges, winning the over-all prize and the five specialist sections including the best Spanish music interpreter, and the critics’ prize. Mr O’Byrne's success was announced by his mother, Mrs Edna O’Byrne, after receiving the news by telephone. Mrs O’Byrne said that her son would like to come back and give concerts in New Zealand but was now studying at Freiburg University in Germany, with the Spanish piano teacher, Rosa Saboteur, as part of a scholarship he was awarded last year. Mr O’Byrne won all the

main concerto competitions in New Zealand, including the Auckland “Star” and Christchurch Civic competitions, and was fourth in the inaugural Tokyo World-wide Piano Competition in 1978, at which he was the youngest of 43 contestants. Mr O’Byrne left for London on a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grant in 1979, and after three years study went to Germany.