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In March 2010, we were well into the tour of Konstantin Shamray – this tour had 46 performances and we have put a selection of the reviews provided from presenters in the May 2010 Newsletter. In this Newsletter we provide a number of wonderful reviews concerning the very successful tour of Tatiana Kolesova – please read these as they make you feel good that prize-winners have a very positive response from the audiences wherever they perform. In August last year we had printed the Application/Audition Booklet for the 2012 Competition. We sent a copy of this booklet to the most important music conservatories in the world and we also advised that additional copies can be downloaded from our website. The downloaded copies give much more space for information required for the Application Form. The venues for auditions have been slightly modified and they will be held in Singapore, Rome, Vienna, Hamburg, Paris, Moscow, London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai and Sydney. We certainly look forward to having well over 200 applications by the 1st December 2011 which is the last day for receiving the Application Form. We have already scheduled 56 Prize-Winners Concerts for 2012 in all parts of Australia and more will be added before the Competition, I am sure. People who have not been able to attend the Competition have listened to it on ABC Classic FM and they welcome Prize-Winners very warmly on these tours as you can see from the responses that Tatiana Kolesova received for her tour last year. Claire Dan AM, OBE |
Alexey Yemtsov had a great success as the soloist with the Australian Youth Orchestra on their tour to China in 2010. “Next stop was Tianjin (Melbourne’s sister city) where the orchestra received the first of many standing ovations following a superb performance with the brilliant Australian pianist Alexey Yemtsov.” Quote from NEWSBEAT - AYO’s Quarterly Newsletter September 2010. Friends in China were very impressed with his performances.
Brenda Jones enjoyed great success in 2010, with the second season of the Nexus Chamber Music Series. A third season is planned for 2011. The core members of Nexus 2011 are Brenda Jones, Aiko Goto, Jeremy Williams and Tim Nankervis with special guests from both the Sydney Symphony and Australian Chamber Orchestras. We also performed for local concert societies such as Mozart Society and the Peninsula Music Club. This year Brenda has also toured the country with Opus 2, her cello and piano duo with ACO cellist Melissa Barnard and recorded the Rachmaninov and Beethoven’s Sonata in D Major for cello and piano with ABC Classic FM. In 2011 she has been invited to play concerts with Omega Ensemble for ABC broadcasts. She will also be playing a duo piano concert with piano Cathy Davis for the Killara Music Club in May. 
Arta Arnicane has been studying in Zürich for two years now with Prof. Francecsh and this year has won four prestigious awards at international piano competitions: Animato Stiftung International Soloist Competition (2nd Prize - no 1st Prize given) and the First Sussex International Piano Competition (1st Prize) and the Baltic International Piano Competition (1st Prize) and in September, the Valencia International Piano Competition Jose Iturbi (2nd Prize and three special prizes). Arta is very excited about her concert tours next season which includes performances of the Grieg Piano Concerto at the Tonhalle Zürich. Her new CD will be released in December 2010. 
John Chen’s trio, Saguaro Piano Trio, will be taking part in the chamber music program at Hamburg Hochschule with Niklas Schmidt. They will be doing quite a lot of performing in Germany, as well as touring New Zealand for Chamber Music New Zealand and Australia for Musica Viva in 2011.
Alexei Volodin continues to have a very busy schedule in 2011. On 28th January, he performs Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 in the Konzerthaus in Vienna. On 30th January recital of Haydn, Beethoven and Schumann in Telfs, Austria, and the same program in the following 3rd and 4th February in Nantes, France, 5th February in Florence, Italy, and 7th February in Milan, Italy, and 16th February in Yaroslavel, Russia, 18th February in Moscow, 21st February in Samara, Russia, and 8th March in Lodz, Poland, 23rd March in Bilbao, Spain and 31st March in Genoa, Italy.
Victoria Lakissova was made a Professor for Piano at the University of Berlin from 1st December 2010. She had many professional musicians and family who had assisted her in obtaining this position.
Fernando Altamura is now studying at Yale University with Peter Frankel and was just awarded the Paris Prize from Yale University given to an outstanding pianist in music. He also accomplished some prizes in international competitions, eg. 2nd Prize in Panama City and 3rd Prize in Santa Catarina.
Spencer Myer enjoyed a busy 2010, performing concerti of Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Saint-Saëns and Mendelssohn with the Baton Rouge, Richmond and San Juan Symphonies, and the Louisiana Philharmonic. He made his debut at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago as a staff pianist for the Steans Institute for Young Singers and returned a third time to the Kent/Blossom Chamber Music Festival to teach and collaborate with the Miami String Quartet in the quintets of Schumann and Brahms. September/October brought his fourth return tour to South Africa since winning First Prize in the 2004 Unisa International Piano Competition. In addition, for the Spring Semester of 2010 Mr. Myer joined the faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, replacing his former Professor there - Peter Takacs - during his sabbatical.
Jayson Gillham has had quite a busy time in the first two months of this year with concerts in London at Blackheath Concert Halls, in Bognor Regis at Bognor Regis Music Club, in Sunderland at the Sunderland Museum, in London at Kings Place Hall and also in London at St John’s, Smith Square.
Cellist Jack Bailey returned to Sydney from London on Monday February 7th. Whilst he was in England on a BBM Travel Scholarship he performed for some 10 cello teachers at various Colleges of Music and he was offered a place in every College for the September entrance. He will now have a difficult time to decide which one to accept.
Nicholas Milton’s 2010 season has included engagements with a host of important European orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Radio Philharmonie Hannover, SWR Radio Symphony Stuttgart, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, and the orchestras of Wiesbaden, Mannheim, Darmstadt, Nice, Odense, Ljubljana (RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra). He also gave his debut in 2010 at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. Future orchestral highlights include return visits to the London Philharmonic Orchestra and to the orchestras in Hannover and Wiesbaden, as well as his debuts with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Staatskapelle Halle, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Bruckner Orchestra Linz and Brabants Orchestra, Holland. Recent opera credits include productions of Die Fledermaus at the Volksoper in Vienna, Die Zauberflöte in Innsbruck, Don Giovanni in Leipzig. In 2011 he returns to Vienna for Carmen, to Innsbruck for the new production of La Fanciulla del west and makes his Berlin opera debut at the Komische Oper with Don Giovanni. In 2012 he will conduct a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro in Vienna.
ANAM’s new Artistic Director, Paul Dean has created a 2011 season that pays homage to a uniquely Australian sound from our ancient past to the present day, bringing the nation’s rich vernacular to the foreground by evoking the voices of Australian composers.
The Tyalgum audience was enthralled with both Tatiana’s performances. Her opening recital was rapturously received by the capacity audience. The audience deeply appreciated Tatiana’s virtuosity and responded to her gracious and flawless performance with great admiration. ”I feel so much more connected to performances in small intimate settings like Tyalgum rather than in large auditoriums like QPAC.” The triumphant conclusion brought the capacity audience to its feet to give a well deserved standing ovation.