Soloists’ Competition 2021

Wednesday evening, 10 March, saw the culmination of three weeks of preparation for our 2021 Soloists’ Competition. Seventy-three Trinity Boys auditioned across a range of instruments for places in the four divisions within the final: Junior, Intermediate, Senior and Advanced. These divisions are created in line with AMEB standard, so boys of all ages can compete at their musical standard. In addition, this was the first concert to be held at Trinity since this time last year due to COVID, and so it was a special occasion, admittedly still with limited audience and physical distancing.

We were joined on the evening by Brenda Jones, as our external adjudicator. Brenda was a finalist at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2005 and has performed as a soloist, in chamber groups and with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and as an accompanist, both for HSC/IB students and professional musicians, making her an excellent judge across a range of instruments in terms of solo performing.

The following students performed in the final:

Junior Division

Emerson Urbano – Piano – Year 6 Junior School

David Chang – Guitar – Year 6 Preparatory School

Aaron You – Piano – Year 1 Preparatory School

Adam Jeroncic – Cello – Year 5 Preparatory School

Mimo Kim – Violin – Year 1 Junior School

Ryan Fan – Cello – Year 2 Junior School

Intermediate Division

Lewis Wang – Piano – Year 2 Preparatory School

Thomas Lee – Guitar – Year 6 Preparatory School

Toby Henry – Flute – Year 9

Marvin Xu – Violin – Year 4 Preparatory School

Alex Kountouris – Saxophone – Year 7

Senior Division

Carlo Furlan – French Horn – Year 7

Christopher Lowe – Violin – Year 8

Ryan Kesby – Flute – Year 10

Advanced Division

Asher Tarbox – Viola – Year 12

Eric Tsai – Guitar – Year 12

Keith Kwok – Flute – Year 12

Andrew Tanous – Cello – Year 11

Joseph Lin – Violin – Year 11

In her adjudication, Brenda stated that in terms of technical ability any of the entrants could have been the winner. However she was, above this, looking for the student who gave the most of themselves to the music and communicated that to the audience. Brenda was also keen to encourage all the boys to continue with their music into the future, stating that not only is music a wonderful art form to study in its own right, but that it is also of huge benefit to brain development which transfers across other subject matters. She determined the following winners:

Junior Division

Mimo Kim performing Russian Fantasia No. 2 by Portnoff on Violin

Intermediate Division

Thomas Lee performing Tang Esta Noche by Lindsay-Clark on Guitar

Senior Division

Carlo Furlan performing the 1st Movement from Concerto for Horn No. 3 K447 by Mozart on French Horn

Advanced Division

Andrew Tanous performing Sieben Variationen uber das Thema, Bei Mannen, Welch Leibe Fiblin by Beethoven

Congratulations to these boys and to all the boys who auditioned and performed on the evening. My thanks to Mr Adams and Mrs Campbell for helping to co-ordinate the auditions from our Junior and Preparatory Schools; to all the instrumental teachers for their preparation of students; and to Mr Kinda, our school accompanist, for his work in the final preparation of the boys for the evening.