總決賽將在星期六﹐6月9日晚上7:30, Town Hall 舉行

第一名獎品包括紐弊 $40,000, NaxosCD專輯及2008新西蘭巡徊演出

第二名獎品紐弊 $10,000

第三名獎品紐弊 $5,000

總決賽音樂會訂票熱線: Ticketek (09) 307 5139或 www.ticketek.co.nz.

Media Release

for immediate release

7 June 2007

Michael Hill International Violin Competition finalists announced

The three finalists in the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition have been chosen.

They are:

Stefan Hempel (Germany)

Bella Hristova (Bulgaria)

Yuuki Wong (Singapore/Dominica)

Each finalist will perform the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major accompanied by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, from 7:30pm on Saturday 9 June in the Auckland Town Hall.

The jury of Pierre Amoyal (France/Switzerland), Justine Cormack (New Zealand), Pamela Frank (United States), Mark Kaplan (United States), Boris Kuschnir (Russia/Austria), Hu Kun (China/United Kingdom), and Dene Olding (Australia) reached their decision following three intense rounds of semi-finals.

The first two rounds were completed in Queenstown when each of the 18 semi-finalists was required to perform solo and piano accompanied works from the very challenging violin repertoire (including Bach, Paganini and Mozart) as well as Fanitullen, a five minute piece by leading New Zealand composer Ross Harris, commissioned by the Competition.

From these rounds the top six semi-finalists were chosen to go forward to the chamber music round, where each competitor performed a full-length piano trio with Ashley Brown (cello) and Sarah Watkins (piano) of the NZTrio in Auckland’s Concert Chamber.

The winner of the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition will be announced at the conclusion of the finals on Saturday 9 June. First prize is NZ$40,000, a CD recording on the Naxos label and a winner’s tour in 2008. Second prize is NZ$10,000, and Third prize is NZ$5,000. A prize of NZ$2,500 is awarded to the semi-finalist who has the best performance of Fanitullen.

The finals are open to the public. Bookings at Ticketek (09) 307 5139 or www.ticketek.co.nz.

Biographies of the three finalists follow.

STEFAN HEMPEL was born in Leipzig in 1980. His first violin lessons were at the age of four at the J.S. Bach Music Conservatory in Leipzig. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Prof. Michael Vogler and continued his studies as a postgraduate in the class of Prof. Stephan Picard. He attended master classes with Kolja Blacher, Walter Levin, Werner Scholz, and Kolja Lessing.

Stefan is the First Prize winner of the Ibolyka-Gyarfas-Foundation (Berlin) and won Second Prize at the 2004 Deutscher Hochschulwettbewerb Frankfurt am Main, the 2005 International Joseph

Joachim Competition Weimar and the International Königin Sophie-Charlotte Competition. He won the Boris-Pergamenschikow Prize for Chamber Music in 2005, and won Third Prize at the International Max Rostal Competition in 2006.

A passionate chamber musician, Stefan has played recitals as the Primarius of the Chagall String Quartet, and has performed with Guy Braunstein, Tanja Tetzlaff, and Hariolf Schlichtig. Stefan is a member of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation “Life Music Now”, and plays a violin made by Nicolaus Gagliano, Naples 1734.

BELLA HRISTOVA was born to musical parents in Pleven Bulgaria in 1985. Her early studies in Sofia were with Joseph Radionov with master classes with Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1999, at the age of 13, she moved to the US to study with Stephen Shipps at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York State. She now studies violin with Ida Kavafian and chamber music with Steve Tenenbom at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Having a great interest in chamber music, she has played with artists such as Gary Graffman, Ida Kavafian, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Paul Watkins and Peter Wiley.

Bella has appeared as soloist with the Ann Arbor, Illinois, Indianapolis, Redding (California), Olympia (Washington), Wyoming and Ashland (Ohio) Symphony Orchestras. She has made several appearances on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion performing live for radio audiences of over four million. In 2006 she was featured in the May issue of O (The Oprah Magazine).

Having won the First Prize, Grand Prize, European Union Prize and Barenreiter Prize at the International Kocian Competition, Bella became a Laureate at the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

YUUKI WONG was born to Japanese and Chinese parentage, and just three years after starting the violin, was admitted to the Yehudi Menuhin School in England where he studied with Rosemary Furniss and Natasha Boyarsky. At 15 he was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory in the US to begin his Bachelors Degree. Since 2000, Yuuki has been studying at the Konservatorium Wien under Prof. Boris Kuschnir, and has participated in master classes with Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Tibor Varga, Viktor Tretyakov, Zvi Zeitlin, Mauricio Fuks, Pierre Amoyal, Pamela Frank, and Gabor Takacs-Nagy, to mention a few.

Honours bestowed upon Yuuki include a Special Prize and Fourth Place at the 2004 Jean Sibelius International Violin Competition, Third Prize at the Abbado International Violin Competition in 2004, and the Grand Prix at the Kingsville International Competition in 2000 where he also won the First Prize Senior Strings and Best Violinist Prize.

Yuuki’s performing experience includes extensive recital and concerto appearances in the US, UK, Scandinavia, Europe, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Other highlights include performances for the President of Singapore, and at prestigious venues such as the Armani Teatro in Milan, MusikvereinGroβesaal and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Finlandia Hall in Helsinki and Buckingham Palace in London.