For our final two New Music Central concerts for 2020, we were delighted to present student works as part of the Douglas Lilburn Memorial Prize! This year for the first time, the competition was open to song writers as well as composers.
Guest adjudicator judge Gretchen LaRoche, CEO of the Christchurch Symphony, was impressed with the exceptionally high level of craft, musicality, and skill on display.
Every song and composition without exception was deserving of high praise, and the judges had an extremely difficult job in selecting a small number of prizewinners. After much discussion, we were very happy to award five prizes overall to two song writers, two composers, and one performer.
First equal prize went to Rakuto Kurano for his composition “Alien Abduction Suite”, and to Nicole Taylor for her song “Final Say.”
Second equal prize was awarded to Hannah Everingham for her song “Engaged”, and to Freddie Gash for his composition “Hope”.
A special prize for outstanding performance went to cellist Amy McMurdo for her rendition of Dean Holdaway’s dramatic piece “Are you there?”. Honorary mentions were given to Jeffery Kalauta for his song “2 pm in Tagata Niue” and to Dean Holdaway for “Are you there?”.
Congratulations to our winners, and to all our students for the work they have created this year – we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
