Winning musicians return to claim their recital prizes

WITH a purse of just $250, the International String Player Award Fox Gefu Chen won at last year’s Gisborne International Music Competition was more a prize of prestige than anything else.
However, that wasn’t all the Sydney-based violinist won at the 2011 contest. He was also named winner of one of two Tiromoana Recital Prizes, each made up of $1000 plus a return visit to Gisborne to perform in the Tiromoana Summer Concert Series.
And now the time to cash in those prizes has come.
Twenty-four-year-old Chen and his fellow 2010 Recital Prize winner, Kiwi oboist Thomas Hutchinson (19), this week return to Gisborne to play the first instalment of the 2011/2012 Tiromoana Concert Series, held at Professor Jack Richards’ Wainui hilltop home.
The Tiromoana concerts 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 particularly well in the competition — like Chen and Hutchinson, who is now studying in Melbourne — the chance to return to Gisborne to give a performance.
Between them Chen and Hutchinson (and an accompanist playing Tiro-moana’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). ■ Fox Gefu Chen (violin) and Thomas Hutchinson (oboe) will perform at Tiromoana this Saturday (7.30pm). The next to play in the concert series will be pianist Tony Lee (January 14), followed by opera singers Kieran Rayner and Byrony Williams (February 4). Tickets can be reserved by phone (868-6443) or e-mail tiromoanasummerconcerts@ gisborne.net.nz