1 July | Applications open
1 August | Applications close
1 September | Semi-Finalists announced

Please read comp. rules & regulations and repertoire criteria - see above

Eligibility

Piano players up to 26 years of age as of 14 December 2024
New Zealand citizen, resident or consecutively studying in a New Zealand school or University for previous two years

Application Deadline – 1 August 2024 5pm

Following this application deadline, 15 semi-finalists will be selected by selection judges to compete in the live competitions, 14 and 15 December at the University of Auckland School of Music, where they will each perform two 30-minute recital programmes comprising contrasting styles and including a work by a New Zealand composer.

The piano adjudicator will select three finalists to compete in the Grand Final on Monday 16 December presented at the Westlake Girls High School Event Centre. The piano competition will run in conjunction with the National String Competition. The Grand Final will be recorded for broadcast by Radio NZ Concert.


Application Materials

Audition Repertoire (see detailed Repertoire Requirements in the link above)

A video recording of contrasting works representing different genres and musical styles totalling 20-30 minutes

The programme must include one movement of a classical sonata

Videos need to be recorded after 1 January 2024

Biography in English – 150 words or fewer

High Res Photograph – 300dpi or greater

Proof of NZ citizenship or residency (scan of passport, residency documents, or a letter from the applicant’s school or University verifying they have been enrolled continually for a minimum of 2 years)

Letter of recommendation from current teacher



TIPS FOR MAKING A GOOD AUDITION VIDEO

Media Information

Please choose a room/venue for the video recording that doesn’t have a lot of reverb for better clarity of sound.
We strongly recommend microphones be placed 3-5 metres away from the performer. Closer or further proximity can often obscure sound quality.
The camera must remain still from the beginning to the end of the selection. The artist’s face and both arms and hands must be visible at all times.
Any indication of editing within any video will disqualify the application, but complete items can be recorded individually.
Videos that are unplayable, inaudible, or faulty such that the judges cannot evaluate the performance will disqualify the application.
High-quality audio will enable the judges to better evaluate the performance.

We support a majority of file types, which include:
Video: MP4, MPEG, MPG, MOV, AVI, WMV, M4V, FLV, WEBM, MKV, M2V
Images: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF
Documents: PDF, PS, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPS, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, OPT, SXW, ODP, SXI, ODS, SXC, RTF, TXT

Our file size limits per media file are:
Video: 4 GB
Documents: 250 MB
Recommended Browser: Google Chrome

1st Prize | $5,000
Donated by Murray Jacobs

+ Recital at Lewis Eady Steinway Showroom
+ Performance opportunity with the Auckland Philharmonia

2nd Prize | $3,000
Donated by Sally Evennett in memory of her late husband Derek Evennett

3rd Prize | $1,000
Donated by Trinity College London

Best Performance of a Classical Sonata | $1000
Donated by Auckland Branch of Institute of Registered Music Teachers

Best Performance of a New ZealandWork | $500
Donated by SOUNZ