National Concerto Competition Final 2024
Peter Gjelsten, Hazuki Katsukawa, Ben van Leuven (left to right) Photo: Music Canterbury
The National Concerto Competition once again welcomes three young and fabulous musicians to show off their magnificent musicianship in the Christchurch Town Hall. They are invited to perform a concerto of their choice with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. The conductor is Benjamin Northey.
The competition is open to musicians under the age of twenty-five and who are residents of New Zealand. The competition alternates between keyboard and other instruments from year to year, and this year our finalists are performing works for violin and clarinet.
Violinists Hazuki Katsukawa and Peter Gjelsten, and clarinettist Ben van Leuven were chosen from thirty-six musicians who entered the competition to perform in the final.
It's a competition, and competitions need a panel of judges. In 2024 they are Donald Armstrong, associate concert master of the NZSO; clarinettist Debbie Rawson, former Head of Woodwinds at the New Zealand School of Music; and Australian cellist Josephine Vains, who is an avid chamber music performer and lecturer at the University of Melbourne.
We start with a violin concerto. Hazuki Katsukawa moved to New Zealand in 2020, studies at the University of Auckland and has performed around the country since then. She chose to perform Violin Concerto in D Minor Op.47 by Jean Sibelius.
The second musician to perform in this final is clarinettist Ben van Leuven. Ben is a Kiwi, hailing from Wellington, New Zealand. He is currently based in Oslo, Norway, and studies with Professor Björn Nyman at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He is an active orchestral musician and performs with orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Arctic Philharmonic and Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
His choice of concerto is by American composer Aaron Copland. It's his Concerto for Clarinet, which is scored for string orchestra with harp and piano.
The last competitor in this concerto competition is violinist Peter Gjelsten from Wellington. He studied Classical Performance at the New Zealand School of Music under Monique Lapins before moving to Melbourne to study at the Australian National Academy of Music with Sophie Rowell in 2023, and with Adam Chalabi in 2024.
In late 2021, Peter won the New Zealand School of Music and Wellington Youth Orchestra concerto competitions where he got the chance to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with both these orchestras. He also took part in the 2022 Whakatipu Music Festival where he enjoyed an intense week of chamber music and private lessons.
Peter also chose the Sibelius Violin Concerto. A double-up in programming means we have the chance to hear the different approaches musicians take to the same piece of music.
The judges found it impossible to choose a winner and therefore awarded a joint first prize to Peter Gjelsten and Ben van Leuven. Hazuki Katsukawa was awarded second (or third?) prize. Congratulations from us at RNZ Concert to them all. What an accomplishment.
Recorded 09 March 2024, Christchurch Town Hall, by RNZ Concert
Producer: Adrian Hollay
Engineers: Adrian Hollay, Alex Harmer
