New Zealand violinist Amalia Hall won the 64th ROSL Annual Music Competition Overseas Award on Tuesday 15 March and was awarded the £3,000 prize.
Five outstanding musicians from overseas were selected from the Section Finals across all categories of the competition. South African soprano Caroline Modiba, New Zealand pianist and accordionist Eddie Giffney, Australian violist Ann Beilby, Maltese saxophonist Philip Attard and New Zealand violinist Amalia Hall all performed spectacularly in their individual categories, and when brought together proved that the calibre of the Annual Music Competition continues to rise and rise.
The adjudicators Vanessa Latarche, Gavin Henderson CBE, Chris de Souza, Ruth Palmer and Jonathan McGovern were in perhaps the most unenviable position of having to decide who most merited the £3,000 Lorna Viol Memorial Prize for the top overseas competitor of 2016. Though all the competitors were also awarded other prizes such as the Tait Memorial Scholarship and the Phillip Crawshaw Memorial Prize, Amalia Hall was the winner of the evening, with her superb performances of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Debussy’s Violin Sonata in G and Wieniawski’s Polonaise in G major.
Amalia is widely recognised as one of the foremost young violinists to emerge from New Zealand, having received laureate prizes at the Joseph Joachim, Premio R. Lipizer, International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians and Kloster Schöntal international violin competitions, as well as winning the Dinu Lipatti, Leoš Janáček, Postacchini and Gisborne international competitions. While still in her teens she won all of the major national awards in New Zealand.
Since making her debut at the age of nine with the Auckland Philharmonia, Amalia has been a regular soloist with orchestras in New Zealand. She has also performed as a soloist with orchestras in Europe including I Virtuosi ltaliani, Munich Chamber Orchestra and NOR Radiophilharmonie. Her extensive performing experience includes performing concerti, recitals and chamber music throughout Europe, USA and NZ; touring for Chamber Music New Zealand, Curtis on Tour and as a member of the NZ Chamber Soloists; and recording chamber music for Bridge Records and Atoll Records. In 2014 Amalia undertook a temporary teaching position at the University of Waikato.
Amalia is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Pamela Frank and Joseph Silverstein, and the University of Auckland, studying with Dimitri Atanassov.
ROSL Annual Music Competition Section Finals take place each Tuesday 7-9pm at Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London, SW1A 1LR:
· 2 February: Wind and Percussion – winner Philip Attard saxophone
· 9 February: Singers – winner Henry Neill baritone
· 16 February: Strings – winner Emily Sun violin
· 23 February: Keyboard – winner Tyler Hay piano
· 1 March: Ensemble A (Strings and Keyboard) – winner Consone Quartet
· 8 March: Ensemble B (Wind and Mixed) – winner Jacquin Trio
· 15 March: Over-Seas Award – winner Amalia Hall violin
· 1 June: Grand Final held at Cadogan Hall, London.
Follow the action on Twitter @ROSLARTS and @ROSL1910
# # #
CONTACT For more information contact Gemma Matthews, Director of Marketing on T 020 7016 6904 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. visit www.rosl.org.uk
NOTES FOR THE EDITOR
Founded in 1910, the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a non-profit private members' club dedicated to championing international friendship and understanding. ROSL helps artists and musicians across the Commonwealth connect, collaborate and create. Our humanitarian work benefits communities and changes lives.
ROSL ARTS supports talented young artists and musicians from the UK and Commonwealth, providing performance and exhibition opportunities which bring their work to the attention of the professional arts community, media and general public.
ROSL ANNUAL MUSIC COMPETITION
The ROSL Annual Music Competition grew out of a series of concerts inaugurated at Over-Seas House London in 1947 under the banner ‘Festival of Commonwealth Youth’. The Festival became competitive in 1952, with a first prize of £10. Over the past 60 years the competition has grown in scope and prestige and now awards in excess of £70,000 for solo performers, accompanists and chamber ensembles. Past ROSL prizewinners make an impressive alumni of musicians of the highest calibre who have established prominent careers in the music profession. Past winners of the Overseas Award are:
| Geoffrey Parsons piano 1953 Australia Rohan de Saram cello 1955 Sri Lanka Yonty Solomon piano 1960 South Africa Dennis Lee piano 1968 Malaysia Tess Uys piano 1972 South Africa Keith Lewis tenor 1975 New Zealand Melvyn Tan harpsichord 1977 Singapore Mark Walton clarinet 1978 New Zealand Jagdish Mistry 1981 India Piers Lane piano 1982 Australia Cheryl Barker soprano 1989 Australia Liwei Qin cello 1997 Australia Gillian Keith soprano 1998 Canada Jonathan Lemalu bass baritone New Zealand Wendy Dawn Thompson soprano 2003 New Zealand Anna Leese soprano 2004 New Zealand Amy Dickson saxophone 2004 New Zealand |
Jacques Imbrailo baritone 2006 South Africa Mateusz Borowiak piano 2006 South Africa Daniel de Borah piano 2007 Australia Pei-Sian Ng 2007 Australia Michael Ierace piano 2008 Australia Victoria Simonsen cello 2008 New Zealand Yelian He cello 2009 Australia Madeleine Pierard soprano 2009 New Zealand Ben Schoeman piano 2009 South Africa Sadie Fields violin 2010 Canada Duncan Rock baritone 2010 Australia Sky Ingram soprano 2011 Australia Njabulo Madlala baritone 2012 South Africa Jayson Gillham piano 2012 Australia Morgan Pearse baritone 2013 Australia Emily Sun violin 2014 Canada Som Howie clarinet 2015 Australia |