Chiron launches new Charitable Trust

On 3 November 2019, at the Auckland Town Hall, the Chiron Charitable Trust was officially launched.  Guests from around New Zealand were treated to performances from talented Chiron music school students.  Other activities on the night included an explanation by the Trust’s Artistic Director, Stephen Larsen and trustee Mark Hornabrook, the presentation of seven inaugural scholarships, and a lively auction delivered by Webbs.

The Trust encourages and supports talented music students.  They offer scholarships and awards to deserving musicians serious about and committed to their musical education.

Announcing Diane Huh as the inaugural Chiron Charitable Trust Young Artist Award

Diane Huh has been awarded the inaugural Chiron Charitable Trust Young Artist Award, a prize of $20,000 to be used towards her further studies.

A student of Stephen Larsen, Diane is a graduate of the University of Auckland and the recipient of many prizes.  In 2019 she was awarded the Michael Hill International Violin Competition Emerging Artist Prize and won first prize in both the Christchurch National Concerto Competition and Gala Soloist Competition at the University of Auckland.  At just age 16, she won the most promising award in New Zealand National Concerto Competition.

Diane has been a Fellowship Programme member of New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and now performs regularly with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. As a concertmaster, she has led her high school orchestra (Christchurch Girls’ High) and the University of Auckland Symphony Orchestra. Her chamber group, the Korimako trio, recently won the Royal Overseas League Chamber Competition and received a scholarship grant, worth $50,000.

Congratulations to our Head of Strings’ University student, Diane Huh, who won the National Concerto Competition last weekend performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

From RNZ, 11:29 am on 25 March 2019

Auckland violinist Diane Huh has won first place at the 2018/2019 National Concerto Competition held in Christchurch over the weekend.

The National Concerto Competition is an annual musical competition for young people aged 25 years and under. This is the 52nd competition and 2018/2019 is for Instrumental competitors.

Huh won $10,000 for her performance of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D Minor. She also secured the People’s Choice Prize. She has previously performed with Korimako Trio, 2017 Winners of the Pettman/ROSL ARTS Chamber Music Scholarship.

Reviewer Patrick Shepherd says of the winning performance: " Huh's sound projected well, even when pitted against the full orchestra, and, throughout, Huh appeared at one with the music. The first-movement cadenza was a tour de force of technique and passion, a neat contrast with the calmness and searching quality she brought to the slow movement. The third-movement was joyous, but also saves plenty of the toughest tricks until last. Huh had plenty in reserve and maintained her focus and energy right to the wire. She was a worthy winner." 

The National Concerto Competition competition was held at the Aurora Centre at Burnside High School and all the finalists were accompanied by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Kay.

Christchurch flutist Isabella Gregory placed second with her performance of Ibert’s Flute Concerto, while Hamilton cellist Hyein Kim came third with Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme and won the Junior Jury Prize.

NZ HERALD

100 not out

12 Dec, 2018

By: Richard Betts

Christmas 1918: the War to End All Wars has just come to its bloody conclusion. If you've survived Ypres, the Somme or Gallipoli you still aren't safe; chances are the influenza pandemic is coming for you or someone you love.

In just two months, 9000 New Zealanders succumb; public gatherings are banned and entertainment halls are ordered to close. The Auckland Choral Society is among the organisations forced to cancel its seasonal festivities.

It's the first year since 1867 that the choir won't perform Handel's great oratorio Messiah. It's also the last year the choir fails to perform Messiah; 2018 marks 100 Handels in a row for the organisation now known simply as Auckland Choral.

The choir's music director, Uwe Grodd, who conducts Town Hall performances this month, is a relative newcomer to Auckland Choral's Messiahs. With two Christmas performances annually, this year he will complete just his 18th.

Many of the choir's members go back much further. Long-time Auckland Choral singer John Stevenson reckons his tally lies somewhere between 60 and 70. He grew up in a singing family; his father conducted the church choir and even now, aged 83, John's relationship with Messiah remains founded in his religious upbringing.

"My view is that Messiah has remained popular because it tells the greatest story ever told," he says. "It's part of people's religious life, it tells a story of Christian redemption from start to finish."

Stevenson talks fondly of past performances and says singing with professional soloists helps keep things exciting for the members of the choir, who are mostly part-timers. Tenor Simon O'Neill is the big star of this Messiah, though Handel is not a composer normally associated with the singer, who, these days, is more likely to be heard in weightier music.

"Simon started in youth choir," Grodd says. "He would have grown up singing Messiah. His voice has the capacity to fill the Town Hall but he's at an age where that voice is at its prime, so he can do anything with it. I'm really looking forward to that first [aria] Comfort Ye, when he opens his mouth and sings."

O'Neill is the standout name but Auckland Choral is doing a couple of other special things to mark 100 years.

Most notably, this will be a big Messiah. Early performances conducted by Handel in the 1740s and 50s featured around 20 choristers and a similar number of orchestral musicians. Grodd's orchestra, Pipers Sinfonia, will boast 50 players, which is large for a Baroque band, but he's really gone to town with the choir, cramming almost 250 singers into Auckland Town Hall.

There is precedent for such large forces; Grodd says that even in Handel's lifetime, Messiahgrew bigger and bigger. By the middle of the 19th century, things had got entirely out of hand. In 1859, a performance to mark the centenary of Handel's death comprised 460 players and 2765 singers.

Auckland Choral is going nowhere near that but Grodd has nonetheless needed to supplement his usual group with members of the University of Auckland Chamber Choir, Dunedin Civic Choir and Brisbane Chorale. In a nice touch, he's also invited alumni of Auckland Choral to return, on the understanding that they commit to seven rehearsals and a weekend workshop ahead of the concert.

Such extended rehearsal time is unusual. Soprano Anna Kofoed joined Auckland Choral as soon as she arrived from England in 1984 but her association with Messiah goes back to the 1960s, when she was a schoolgirl in Oxford. She remembers that when she sang in the Royal Choral Society in London, Messiah might only earn one or two rehearsals, if you were lucky.

"They did it every year and didn't think you needed a lot of rehearsals. If you'd never sung it before you were at a huge disadvantage."

Grodd, you sense, would not leave his singers at a disadvantage. For him, it's less about perfection than the search for transcendent moments or what his teacher, the great Sergiu Celibidache, called the "yes".

"Celibidache, used to ask: how many yesses are there in music and how many nos?" explains Grodd. "There are lots of nos: too flat, too sharp, too early, too late, too loud, too soft. Everything is no, no, no, no, no. And then there comes a yes. The yes is that moment when everything clicks, when everything is one." In Handel's words, it's the Hallelujah.

Fireworks with Uwe Grodd

23 Nov 2018

Uwe Grodd is one of New Zealand’s best-known musicians – not only here but internationally.

The German-born New Zealander is a flutist, conductor and prolific recording artist – particularly regarded for his recordings of 18th Century music and the rehabilitation of composers such as Ferdinand Ries, a Beethoven pupil and fine composer in his own right.

Uwe Grodd has won several international awards for his work in 18th century music, including a Cannes Classical Award, Recordings of the Month in Gramophone Magazine and an IRR Outstanding award from International Record Review.

He has a remarkable musical pedigree, having been influenced by Bach specialist Helmuth Rilling in Stuttgart, and studying with renowned composer and flutist Robert Aitken and legendary conductor Sergiu Celibidache.

Up until recently, Uwe Grodd was Professor of flute and conducting at Auckland University’s School of Music, but his position was disestablished in a restructure earlier this year.

Uwe Grodd is currently conductor of Auckland Choral, and also the founding Music Director of the Manukau City Symphony Orchestra.

That orchestra’s turned 25 this year, and on Saturday there’s a celebratory concert entitled “Fireworks”

By RNZ