Winning violinist returning for concert

THE 2011 Gisborne International Music Competition hasn’t even been staged yet and already the fundraising machine for the 2012 event is in motion.
Every summer in recent years, Professor Jack Richards has organised a series of concerts staged at his Wainui hilltop home, Tiromoana.
The events serve two purposes. For one, though they are nail-bitingly expensive to stage, Richards ensures all the proceeds go to the annual music competition.
For another, they give musicians who have done particu-larly well in the competition the chance to return to Gisborne to give a performance.
The latter purpose is served in the first concert booked for the 2011/2012 season with Richards having booked Sydney-based violinist Fox Chen, winner of the prize for Best International String Player at the 2010 Gisborne music competition.
Twenty-four-year-old Chen will be teamed up with oboist Thomas Hutchinson — who is currently studying in Melbourne — for the pre-Christmas concert. Together they (and an accompanist playing Tiromoana’s gleaming Kawai grand) will perform pieces from Schumann’s Drei Romanzen op. 94 for oboe and piano and Brahms’ Sonata no. 2 op. 100 for violin and piano; to Sonata op. 27 no. 3 for solo violin (Ysaye) and the Carmen Fantasy for violin and piano (Waxman/Bizet).
Later in the season (January 14), award-winning concert pianist Tony Lee — also based in Sydney — will return to perform at Tiromoana with an expansive classical programme including works by Bach, Mozart, Scriabin, Brahms, Chopin and Debussy, as well as Liszt/Horowitz’s enormously tricky arrangement of Saint-Saens’ famous orchestral work, Danse Macabre.
Then on February 4, there will be a performance from acclaimed opera singers Kieran Rayner (tenor) and Byrony Williams (soprano).
■ Fox Chen (pictured right, violin) and Thomas Hutchinson (oboe) will perform at Tiromoana on December 17, while pianist Tony Lee is booked for January 14, followed by opera singers Kieran Rayner and Byrony Williams (February 4). Tickets for all three concerts can be reserved by telephoning 868-6443, or e-mailing tiromoanasummerconcerts@gisborne.net.nz