 In 2001, Vera Kameneva was given the title ‘soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic’ and in the same year began as an Assistant to Prof. Roschina at Moscow Conservatory, and was invited to perform in the Safonov Festival in Kislovodsk. In 2002, she performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, in Irkutsk, as well as giving numerous recitals in Moscow. In 2003, she gave a solo recital in the Piano Masters Festival in Samara, where other performers included Dmitri Bashkirov, Nikolai Petrov and Alexander Gindin. She also gave a series of chamber music concerts with clarinettist Igor Federov. Vera holidayed in Sydney during July and August of this year.
 Daniel del Pino has had success in several International Competitions including:
- 2000 Jose Iturbi (Valencia, Spain) 5th Prize and Special Prize for the best performance of Chopin works (12 Études, Op. 10).
- 2002 Jeunesses Musicales de Meknes (Morocco) 1st Prize and Special Prize for best performance of Spanish music (Granados)
He has also made the following orchestral appearances:
- 2001 Three performances of de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain with the Garland Symphony (Texas), Les Colinas Symphony and the New Symphony of Arlington.
- 2001 Two performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in Spain - Segovia and Valladolid University.
- 2003 Performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in Jaen with the Malaga Symphony.
His recitals have included:
2001 - Switzerland, Spain, and USA, with nine concerts in the Dallas area, the Newport Festival, tours to Taiwan with a violinist, and to Israel with a ’cellist.
2002 - Switzerland and Italy with a ’cellist, the USA with another ’cellist, Spain, Jordan, France, Newport Festival and Cape Cod tour and Germany.
2003 - Switzerland, Spain, Germany and Japan. CD recordings of all 27 Études of Chopin, Moscheles’ 12 Études Caracteristiques and 3 Études of Mendelssohn.
Later in 2003 - Newport Festival, Ayamonte Festival (Spain), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (Germany), tours in Germany, USA and Romania.
 At the 9th Geza Anda International Piano Competition held in Zurich in June, 2003, the First Prize was won by Alexei Volodin from Moscow. The prize was 30,000 Swiss Francs (AUD$35,000), an extensive list of international concert engagements and three years of free management services provided by the Competition. In the finals he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22, KV482 with the Orchestra MusikKollegium Winterhur, conducted by János Fürst, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” with the Tonhalle Orchestra, conducted by Theodor Guschlbauer.
 In 2002, Gottlieb Wallisch graduated with honours from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He is currently studying with Pascal Devoyon at the University of Arts in Berlin. Since 2000, he has appeared in many of Europe’s major concert halls, including Wigmore Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Tonhalle in Zurich and the Musikverein Vienna, presenting solo recitals as well as appearing as soloist with international orchestras and conductors. Wallisch has also undertaken concert tours to the USA, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Great Britain, the Middle East, Africa and Armenia. He has recently embarked on a recording project with the Naxos CD label, featuring Piano Sonatas of Schubert. The first set of these CDs will be released in 2004.
 The BBC Music Magazine, July 2003, gives a wonderful review of Piers Lane’s latest CD, Volume 3 of Piano Transcriptions by Friedman, Grainger and Murdoch, released on Hyperion. The reviewer states “Lane commands the golden tone and effortless, spirited virtuosity needed to make these transcriptions come alive, and makes them sound easy to boot. A honey of a release”. The transcriptions are of works by Bach.
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| Sheila Prior
 At the AGM of the Friends of the SIPC, held at the Australian Institute of Music on 11 April, 2003, Mrs Sheila Prior, the Foundation Treasurer of the Friends, was unanimously elected Vice President.
For over 25 years, Sheila has handled all of the membership registrations and ticketing for Friends Events. In addition, she has been the person to whom so many of the Friends and the general public, have telephoned for information not only about the Friends, but also about the Competition itself. Sheila’s patience in attending to the numerous enquiries has been greatly appreciated. She has done this in addition to the huge amount of work involved in book-keeping, preparation of financial statements for each Council and Annual Meeting.
Sheila is also involved in a number of other important committees, the most important of these would be as:
- Member of the Competition Executive for many years.
- Founding President and now Chairman of the Australian Opera Auditions Committee, which like the Friends Council is a voluntary organisation which has raised over $1.2m in the past 28 years to support talented Australian singers in particular, but also conductors and instrumentalists. This Committee was the first to honour Dame Joan Sutherland, by establishing a scholarship in her name which for the past twenty years has been $20,000.
Sheila has been a long -time member of the Chancellor’s Committee, the Friends of the Town Hall Committee of the City of Sydney Council and the Military and Hospitallier Order of St Lazarus, a body formed by the Knights at the time of the Crusades. The Order raises money to support a variety of charities. Sheila is also the only original member on the Committee of the Ladies Appeal Committee of the Sydney Opera House.
We all wish Sheila the very best in her new role and thank her for the outstanding dedication and expertise she has given to the Friends Council.
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| Forthcoming Events
• 2003 Christmas Party - 6.00pm, December 11, 2003 - Goethe Institut, 90 Ocean Street, Woollahra. Invitations are enclosed. Performers will be Melody Quah (piano) and Emily Sun (violin).
Melody Quah
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Melody Quah started playing the piano at a very young age. She performed in the prestigious Franz Liszt Hall, Hungary, when she was seven years old. She was selected to perform her own compositions in the Yamaha International Junior Original Concerts held in Japan (1996 and 2001), and was invited to perform for the 100th Anniversary of Utsunomia City in Japan. In 1998, she won the Mont Blanc Tribute to Chopin Piano Recital Award, and in 2000 she won the National Panasonic Digital Piano Competition in Malaysia. She has also played for Maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy. Melody is in the Senior Secondary College at the Australian Institute of Music, and is a student of Prof. Victor Makarov. |
Emily Sun
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11 year-old Emily Sun, a student of Alice Waten, is an experienced performer, playing regularly in the Australian Institute of Music’s Art Gallery of NSW Free Lunchtime Concerts, as well as the Young Musicians Program Saturday concerts. She is well known on the eisteddfod circuit, her most recent success being awarded the “most exciting performer” of the whole competition, winning $1,000. In 2004, Emily will begin high school. She won a full music scholarship to MLC Burwood. In fact she was offered 3 full music scholarships to prestigious schools. |
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| János Fürst
The Competition Board is pleased to announce that János Fürst will conduct the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for the 19th and 20th Century Concertos in the 2004 Competition.
 Like a number of distinguished conductors, János Fürst began his musical career as a string player. He initially studied the violin at the Liszt Academy in his native Budapest and then at the Conservatory in Brussels, where he was awarded the Premier Prix. For the next decade, he worked as an orchestra leader and in 1963 he founded the Irish Chamber Orchestra, after which a full-time conducting career soon developed.
János Fürst has held posts as Chief Conductor and Music Director in Malmö, Aalborg, Dublin, Marseilles and Winterthur, and was Chief Guest Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for a number of years.
Since making his London debut in 1972, he has conducted all the major London Orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a regular guest in the major European capitals and with leading orchestras in Israel, in the USA, Australia and New Zealand.
János Fürst has succeeded in balancing his work in the concert hall with a passion for all forms of musical theatre.
In the operatic field, János Fürst spent nine years as Music Director of Marseilles Opera and has also been a regular Guest at the English National and Scottish Operas, and most recently at the Royal Stockholm Opera. In last April, Maestro Fürst performed Aida in Budapest which he will conduct this year at the Szeged Festival.
János Fürst has also given a special place in his career to contemporary music. He conducted the premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’ full length ballet Salome in Copenhagen which was subsequently released by EMI.
Recent and forthcoming engagements include concerts at the Théâtre de Champs-Elysées in Paris with Imogen Cooper and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Helsinki Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philhamonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, RTL Luxembourg, Orchestre National de Lyon, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur, l’Orchestre National d’Ile de France at the Besançon Festival and Ile de France Festival. Since mid 2002, János Fürst has been the Artistic Director of the Szeged Symphonic Orchestra.
In addition, János Fürst takes a very keen interest in the development of young musicians. Between 1997 and 2002, he was Professor of Conducting Studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. He has also just launched a very interesting project of Conducting Masterclasses in Szeged.
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| Honorary President
The Competition Board is pleased to announce that the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Ald. Lucy Turnbull has accepted the position of Honorary President of the Competition.
 Lucy Turnbull (LLB (Syd) MBA [UNSW]) has lived and worked in Sydney all her life. She has practised law, specialising in commercial law, company law and commercial litigation.
Since 1999, Lucy has been Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney and has recently been elected as Lord Mayor. She chairs the Planning, Traffic and Central Sydney Planning Committees. She is also a member of the Committee for Sydney.
Lucy is a member of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art. For many years she served as President of the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation. She and her husband Malcolm have recently established the Turnbull Foundation, a charitable trust whose purpose is to help disadvantaged children. Her interests are politics, history, art, urban design and contemporary culture. She is married with two adult children.
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Performers at the Opening Recital Since the First Competition
| 1977 |
No Opening Recital |
| 1981 |
The Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Myer Fredman, with pianist Roger Woodward in the Concert all of the Sydney Opera House. Works by Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Sibelius. |
| 1985 |
Piano recital by Roger Woodward in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. Works by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. |
| 1988 |
Piano recital by Irina Plotnikova in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. Works by Mozart, Scriabin and Liszt. |
| 1992 |
Piano recital by Peter Donohoe at the Sydney Town Hall. Works by Bartòk, Liszt and Beethoven. |
| 1996 |
Piano recital by Olivier Cazal at the Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Works by Prokofiev, Poulenc, Scriabin, Liszt and Rachmaninov. |
| 2000 |
Piano recital by Irina Plotnikova at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre, University of Sydney. Works by Schubert, Schumann and Liszt. |
| 2004 |
Piano recital by Piers Lane at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre, University of Sydney. |
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