|
Media Release
6 September 2007
Chatswood Talent to compete in International Piano Competition
Husband and wife competing against each other
Three local Chatswood pianists, David Shi and Dong-Jun-Ha along with his wife, Kayoko Nishiwaki are set to compete in the Southern Highlands International Piano Competition (SHIPC) on September 30th during the NSW Highland’s famous Tulip Time Festival centred on Bowral.
These Chatswood musicians will be competing against some of the world’s brightest young pianists for prize money worth at least $45,000. Competitors will be converging in the highlands from France, Taiwan, Poland, Indonesia, Columbia, Canada, China, Japan, USA, the Ukraine, as well as Sydney and Melbourne.
Unusually, Dong-Jun-Ha and his wife Kayoko Nishiwaki will actually be competing against each other during the Highlands inaugural international competition. Whilst not their first international piano competition, it is the first time the newly weds will compete against each other as husband and wife. In 2005 they won an award as a Duo in the Kobe International Competition.
Dong –Jun moved to Australia from Korea with his family in 1993. In 2003 he studied music in Russia where he met Kayoko in a Russian language class. Kayoke is originally from Japan. They have been living in Chatswood for almost twelve months.
By their own admission, the talented couple have very different tastes in music and say that they have many arguments when they play as a duo but love listening to music together and share a love of famous classical music performers.
21 year old David Shi has lived in Chatswood for the past four years. He started learning the piano with his mother at just three years old. He favourite pieces at the moment are Beethoven's Emperor Piano Concerto, Brahms 1st Piano Concerto and Chopin Ballades.
Earlier in the year, David won the Rex Hobcroft Piano Award. He has been a prizewinner of many MacDonald's Performing Arts Challenge events, including the Chopin Award and a finalist in the John Allison Scholarship. Last year, he completed an Actuarial Studies degree from Macquarie University. Currently he is completing a Finance degree.
In addition to performing in the international Piano competition later this month, David will be performing amongst the tulips in Bowral’s famous Corbett Gardens on Friday September 21st during Channel Nine’s, The Today Show live broadcast with Steve Jacobs.
The Southern Highlands International Piano Competition is the only International piano competition in Australia outside of Sydney. Audiences will see these talented pianists put through their paces with a week of heats and semi finals where they will be required to perform several Etudes, Sonatas and works from the Romantic period. The finals will see the competitors perform a concerto with the Wollongong Symphony Orchestra.
The Southern Highlands of NSW is rich in musical culture and offers a wide range of artistic pursuits. It is an ideal setting for the first International Piano Competition to be staged in a regional area of Australia and will provide a competition which will promote classical pianists in the 18 to 32 age group.
The competition will begin on Sept 29th with the Judges Launch Recital evening when the Highlands will be treated to performance from world famous artists Mira Yevtich, Marilyn Meier and Grant Foster.
The semi finals will be held at Chevalier College in Burradoo from Sept 30th and the final will be held at Clubbe Hall, Frensham, Mittagong on Sunday, October 6th.
Tickets for all performances are available from the Visitor’s Information Centre, Mittagong
Ph: 1300 657 559
Ends
Media interviews and photography – Vanessa Rodeghiero, Avanti Communications 0414 991150
|
