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From the President

It is very pleasing to read in the What they are doing now section the way in which so many of our former Prize-Winners are having such a lot of success with their careers as performers in solo recitals and also with concertos with orchestras.

In 2010, we will look forward to return concert tours for the First Prize-Winner, Konstantin Shamray, who will perform in many country towns and cities in all states as well as all capital cities. His tour will cover a period of four months, beginning with a Gala Opening Concert arranged by the Friends of the Competition in the Goosens Hall in the ABC Centre at Ultimo on Wednesday, 3 March at 8.00pm. On his way from Moscow to Sydney, he will give a recital in Singapore.

Later in the year, the Second Prize-Winner, Tatiana Kolesova, will give recitals in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. This tour will cover a period of just over two months. She will give a recital for the Friends of the Competition in Sydney on Wednesday, 1 September at 8.00pm. The venue for this concert has as yet not been finalised. She will give the Opening and Final Recitals of the Tyalgum Festival in northern New South Wales.

In August of this year, the music critic Robert Shermann (USA) has devoted the whole month on his radio program in presenting the CDs from the 2008 Competition – Solo, Chamber Music and Concertos.

Claire Dan AM, OBE

What they are doing now

Eric Zuber was the winner of the Fourth Prize in the Dublin International Competition in May 2009 and also in May he was the winner of the First Prize in the Juilliard Gina Bachauer Competition which will allow him to attend Juilliard as a Master student on full scholarship. He will be studying with Robert McDonald.

Tatiana Kolesova was the winner of the Third Prize in the Géza Anda Competition in Zurich, Switzerland in June 2009. The Prize is F10,000 Swiss Francs and in addition, she will receive free concert management for three years following the Competition. Already concerts in 2010 have been arranged for her but avoiding the time when she will be touring in Australia.

In June 2009, Mariangela Vacatello was a finalist in the 13th Van Cliburn Competition, the first Italian pianist to be a finalist. She had a cash award of USD10,000 as well as career management for 3 concert seasons following the Competition including concerts tours in USA. Later in June 2009, she was the Winner of the First Prize of €30,000 in the first Top of the World International Piano Competition held in Tromso, Norway. She also has some engagements. Congratulations from all at the Sydney Piano Competition for these wounderful achievements.

In February 2009, Charlie Albright gave the opening performance of the First Season of the Nadia Reisenberg Young Artist Concert Series at the Ossining Public Library in New York. He performed works by Menotti, Beethoven, Ravel, Haydn, Janácˇek and Chopin. Later in the month, he gave a solo performance at the Feast of Music, a major fundraising event of the New England Conservatory of Music, where he helped to raise over $500,000 for scholarships. In March 2009, he performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a performance commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights.

Elizaveta Ivanova has just finished her third year at the Moscow Conservatory studying with Professor Serge Dorensky. She has been an accompanist in the Vocal School and has also given a number of concerts and recitals mainly in Moscow at the Moscow Conservatory (Mozart and Chopin), the Roerich Museum (Spanish music with a singer), Moscow Taganka Theatre and chamber concerts (trios by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Brahms). In September 2009, she will go to St Petersburg for Master Classes and concerts followed by a recital in Murom (Russia) with a new program (Chopin – 4 Ballades and Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition). In October 2009, she is making a recording of Russian classical music on Radio Orpheus.

Alexei Volodin continues to have a very busy schedule of solo recitals and concertos. In October, 2009 he will give recitals in Netherlands, USA (New York, Storrs/Co and Fairfield/Co), Germany (Munich). In November 2009 in Switzerland (Porrentury and Solothurn) and in January 2010, in Germany (Wiesbaden and Aachen), in February 2010 in Spain (Barccelona) and Austria (Vienna) and in March 2010 in Italy (Milan, Turin and Palermo) and in Spain (Alicante).

Concertos
In September 2009 with the London Symphony Orchestra, conductor Valery Gergiev, he will perform in Germany and Luxembourg. In November 2009, with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conductor Edo de Waart, he will perform in Lausanne and Geneva – Rachmaninov Concerto No 3 and with the Warsaw Philharmonic Rachmaninov No 3 and Shostakovich No 1. In December with the Wiener Symphoniker, conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev – Shostakovich No 1 and in Russia, Moscow Great, Svetlanov Tate Orchestra, Gershwin Concerto in F. In February 2010, Germany (Freiburg) Stravinsky – Capriccio and in Japan (Nagoya) with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, conductor S. Bychkov, Rachmaninov No 2. In March, in Spain (Madrid), Spanish National Orchestra, conductor V. Fedoseyev, Scriabin – Piano Concerto.

Konstantin Shamray’s future activities include: September 7-12, Master Classes in Italy; September 18 Mozart Piano Concerto KV 595 with the Jena Orchestra conducted by Dr. Nicholas Milton; Recitals in the Bochum Festival in Germany - 20th in the Forum Musem, Bochum, and 27th at the Villa Teresa in Coswig; October 30 Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 1 with Belgrade Philharmonic; November – Tour in Siberia- up to 10 concerts; November 22, Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5 at Yaroslavl Russia, December 12, Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 at Toliatti Russia; January 11, Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 1 with Moscow Philharmonic; February 13, Solo Recital for Moscow Philharmonic; February 17, Solo Recital at House of Composers in Moscow; February 28, Solo Recital at Singapore University on his way to Australia; March 1, Arrives in Sydney; March 3 Opening Recital of 2010 Australian Tour, Eugene Goosens Hall, ABC Centre, Ultimo at 8.00pm .

Joanne Kang was the winner of the 2009 John Allison Piano Prize of $10,000 in the Sydney Eistedfodd on 26th July. She is studying piano with Nicolai Evrov and Prof. Warren Thomson. Following the completion of her HSC, she plans to go to America for further studies. Joanne will be performing at the Christmas Party at the Friends of the Competition at the Goethe Institut on 10th December, 2009.

Konstantin Shamray's Tour in 2009

Konstantin Shamray

Australian String Quartet

The Australian tour was basically a tour with the Australian String Quartet – they performed in capital cities – Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and there was a country tour in South Australia, which comprised nine concerts in Noosaville (Qld), Renmark, Tanunda, Noarlunga, Mt Barker, Port Pirie, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and Mt Gambier (SA). In these country towns, he performed fifteen minutes of solo piano works by Chopin and Rachmaninov as well as the Schumann Piano Quintet in the second half of the program. The tour also included five solo recitals in Adelaide, Melbourne, Geelong and Sydney.

The tour was a great success with a number of very good reviews of the concerts with the Australian String Quartet in the Melbourne Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Adelaide Advertiser.

New Concert Venues/Presenters for 2010 Tours

Singapore University, Cranbrook School, Launceston, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand, Elder Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, Taree Pro Musica Society Inc., Government House Ballroom Perth, Inverell Town Hall, Bellingen Town Hall, St. Andrews College (Sydney University), The Hutchins School Hobart, Noosa Music Society, Camden Haven Music Festival, Byron Music Society, *Manly Music Club, *Yass Music Club.

*Concerts for Tatiana Kolesova. All others are for Konstantin Shamray.

Hamamatsu Competition in 2009

This Competition will take place from 6th November to 24th November inclusive in the city of Hamamatsu, Japan. The Competition received 229 applications and a panel of three people watched the DVD’s or videos and selected 103 to be invited to the Competition. Names that will be known in Australia are:
Sean Chen, John Fisher, James Moon, Oliver She and Hao Zhu
All of these have accepted the invitation to participate in the Competition

Friends of SIPCA, Victoria

Two highly successful Recitals by Konstantin Shamray took place in June. The first was presented at the lovely home of David and Trish Kidman overlooking Corio Bay, near Geelong. Sixty five guests were amazed and
thrilled by Konstantin’s brilliance and musicianship. The audience enjoyed refreshments following the recital, giving them the opportunity to meet and talk with Konstantin, who obviously enjoyed the intimacy and
atmosphere of the occasion.

The following evening Konstantin again thrilled a large audience in the James Tatoulis Auditorium at MLC in Kew, choosing to play not the six foot Steinway but an older Bösendorfer Concert Grand piano which gave
him greater scope for his wide range of dynamics and colours.

Thanks are due to the Kidmans for their hospitality, the staff at MLC for their warm cooperation, the most obliging piano tuner who gave generously of his time and expertise to prepare the piano, the Russian community for their enthusiastic support, the small committee of the Victorian Friends who worked hard to promote these concerts, and of course to Konstantin Shamray, for his wonderful playing.


MLC Recital (l to r) Peter Heffey, Jill Bear, Judy Mallinson, Konstantin Shamray, Marilyn Pittard, Blanche White and John Mallinson	Recital at ‘Hermsley’ Curlewis, near Geelong (l to r) Konstantin Shamray, Patricia Kidman, David Kidman and Judy Mallinson

Svetlana Navassardian

Svetlana Navassardian was the winner of the Second Prize in the 1977 Competition and we have just received details of her professional life. She has a very large repertoire of concertos including 13 of J.S. Bach and 27 of Mozart, 5 of Beethoven, 2 of Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev and also concertos by Haydn, Schumann, Arensky, Glazunov, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Strauss, Bartók, Khatchaturian, Hovountz and Babjanian. She has performed in more than 40 countries including USA, Canada, Egypt, Kuwait, Italy, France, Russia, Germany, Spain, Greece, China and Japan. She has performed with many famous conductors including Valery Gergiev, Vassili Sinayski, Vladimir Spivakov, Yury Bashmet and Victor Tretyakov.

She began piano lessons at the age of five and gave a recital at 9, of all thirty Inventions of J. S. Bach. She was awarded the USSR Order of Honour in 1981, People’s Artist of Armenia in 1984 and State Prize of Armenia in 1988. She studied with the great teacher Yakov Zak in Moscow. She also made her debut as a conductor with the Yerevan Chamber Orchestra.

Daniel Rojas

The composer, Daniel Rojas, who has been commissioned by Fr. Arthur Bridge and Ars Musica Australis to compose a new piano concerto for the Sydney Youth Orchestra has been awarded the Miriam Hyde Composition Prize for 2009. The new concerto will be given a world premiere by Konstantin Shamray on Friday 12th March 2010 at City Recital Hall, Angel Place at 8.00pm.

Extracts from reviews of Konstantin Shamray’s tour

Brilliance from a keyboard master
Shamray’s program was a fiercely demanding compilation that featured some of the toughest challenges in the repertoire. …the most rewarding offering of the evening lay in keeping of Liszt’s arrangement of the Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. …nimble ,tireless fingers gave us a first rate account of Bach’s Partita No.5. …Mozart poses the greatest challenge to any musician…it requires absolute control and high musicality ……and this was triumphantly apparent in Shamray’s account of Sonata in F K533.
Neville Cohn - West Australian - 15/08/2008

A touch of real genius
First impression, his touch – that indescribable but immediately recognizable, quietly thrilling quality that demands attention …… (also) a gift for painting pictures and telling stories in sound. His absorption of 19th and 20th centuries stylistic niceties is phenomenal in one so young. Bitter – sweet humour, po-faced lyricism, trademark toccata patches, an elegant, languorous mock-romantic waltz and scintillating rondo distinguished and clarified his view of Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6 Op 82.
Elizabeth Silsbury - The Advertiser (Adelaide) - 6/05/2009

Fresh relish from a confident quartet (with The Australian String Quartet)
The Sydney International Piano Competition winner gave ample evidence of his considerable talent through a reading that delivered the composer’s active piano part [Schumann’s Piano Quintet Op. 44] with finely judged consideration for the string players, Shamray matching his dynamic output to that of his colleagues with a sensitivity that escapes most pianists when faced with this voluble work.
Clive O’Connell - The Age ( Melbourne) - 9/05/2009

Pianist helps it all come together (with The Australian String Quartet)
…Though undemonstrative, Shamray is a pianist of focused expressiveness with steely capacity to project a full piano sound. He plays with musicianly precision and welcome rhythmic discipline. I felt the strings could have afforded more expansiveness in the climax just before the final fugue brings everything together, but the partnership with Shamray was just what was needed to give this performance a firm Backbone. ( Schumann’s Piano Quintet Op. 44)
Peter McCallum - The Sydney Morning Herald - 11/05/2009

With Dynamite in his Fingertips
Some were reminded of the then young Pollini – without frills but with bravura and musical interpretation as seen in Schumann’s Carnaval Op. 9 and in the Prokofiev Sonata No.6 which had everyone paying attention to his performance. Shamray enters the stage bashfully …He concentrates without trace of eccentricity or unnecessary movements and unlike some young pianists, he concentrates solely on the music.
Michael-Georg Müller - Neuer Ruhr Zeitung (Newspaper) - 22/06/2009

A Sphinx at the Keyboard
At the world’s largest Piano Festival (Ruhr Festival)…after all the highlights, who provides the sensation? Konstantin Shamray.… His large slim hands (provide) a body of sound with such intensity that no one could not have expected. ….Neither in Beethoven ‘s Op. 101 or Schumann’s Carnaval Op. 9 does Shamray leave anything to chance. Each central voice or bass line shows up clearly, crescendos and diminuendos are artfully organized every rhythm calculated to a millisecond.
His Prokofiev…[has] iron severity, sarcastic humour, impossible sweetness and near frightening virtuosity combined in the apotheosis. He places himself not at the centre, but strives for the fulfillment of higher aspirations.
Lars Wallerang - West German Zeitung (Newspaper) - 23/06/2009