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The 36 competitors chosen to come to Sydney can all certainly be considered winners, having been selected from almost 250 fine pianists from all parts of the world. We are all looking forward with considerable excitement to the arrival of the 36 pianists to Sydney where they will be wonderfully looked after. Many members of the Friends of the Competition have volunteered to work in a variety of tasks associated with the Competition. These include meeting all visitors at the airport and taking them to their hotels, looking after them backstage before and after their performances, providing refreshments throughout each day of the Competition, transporting them to and from the orchestral rehearsals and in the front of house, as program vendors. The Volunteers’ Co-ordinator, Judy Hunt, does an outstanding job with her team providing a very warm, friendly and most caring atmosphere at the time when the competitors are nervous and worried about their performances to come. I hope you will be joining us at the Seymour Centre, and in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for the most stimulating and exciting Competition that we have held yet. Be sure you book early to get the best seats and enjoy every note you hear. Claire Dan AM, OBE |
Twenty-five music lovers with Renaissance Tour Director Vicki Mitchell and Garry Nash as Artistic Leader, experienced a wonderful sixteen days of music, beauty, the best in art and the chance to hear some of the finest young pianists in Vienna and Moscow.
Our timing in St. Petersburg was perfect. The old capital had just experienced a face-lift for its 300th anniversary and as it is the home-town of President Putin, nothing was spared, everything being shown to us in its best colours. We heard Puccini’s Turandot in the beautiful Marinsky Theatre and saw there also the Kirov Ballet perform three Stravinsky ballets. The Hermitage, where the film ‘Russian Ark’ had been shot, was virtually empty for our visits – so were were able to enjoy the works of art at our own pace, such a privilege! Our troika ride through the snow-covered forests followed by music and vodka, a highlight for everyone. Some of our party succumbed to a nasty upper respiratory infection but they were looked after so well by our tour leaders.
On to Moscow by the Red Arrow train, where we experienced a superb ballet program of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet danced in the historic Bolshoi New Stage Theatre and the next night, the Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin in the main Bolshoi Theatre - what a feast!
Friday 2 July and Sunday 4 July
Stage V: Finals
The Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Ultimo Centre on Thursday 25 March played host to the launch of Grab The Goanna - a major competition open to all primary and secondary schools across Australia.
