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Otago Daily Times

Well-paced, exciting final drew large audience

DSO and DYO Concerto Competition Rising Stars Finalists Dunedin Town Hall Friday May 16 The 2025 Dunedin Concerto Competition final, in which three young musicians performed with a full orchestra, attracted a large audience to the Dunedin Town Hall on Friday night. The first half of the programme featured the Dunedin Youth Orchestra, a strong 60-member orchestra with big sound and enthusiasm. DYO (conductor David Burchell) began with Offenbach's overture La Belle Helene, featuring contrasting flowing waltz passages and robust sections. They continued with varied movements from three substantial suites — L'arlesienne Suite No.2 by Bizet, Little Suite No.2 by Malcolm Arnold and Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet Suite No.2 by Prokofiev. The well-known Eric Coates' Knightsbridge March completed their contribution. All were well-paced and exciting and the conductor for the second half, James Judd, commented he was "knocked out by the quality of the first half". He conducted the DSO which included a number of DYO instrumentalists gaining experience with a professional orchestra. The Concerto Competition attracted 25 applicants, three aged under 14. I attended preliminary performances and can vouch for the high standard of performance and the difficulty the judges (Monique Lapins, Jian Liu and Samuel Jacobs) faced in naming just three for the final. First place ($7000) went to pianist Ozan Biner-McGrath (year 12 Logan Park High School), who chose the allegro movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor for a strong, confident, stylistic delivery with impressive scalic cadenza. Second place ($5000) went to first-year University of Otago student Portia Bell (cello) for the allegro movement of Dvorak's Cello Concerto Op. 104. Taking third place ($3000) was Otago University first-year student Roy Zhang (piano), who played with two movements of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major. A rather "showy" allegramente displayed the movement's jazz elements, followed by adagio, which developed stunningly with woodwind lyricism and obligato. Review by Elizabeth Bouman