Cello Festival and Competition
Kate Hartnell, Chair, New Zealand International Cello Festival and Competition
ompetition
As Chair of the Board of Trustees of the New Zealand International Cello Festival and Competition (formerly known as the Adam International Cello Festival and Competition), it was my unfortunate duty to announce the decision to dissolve the Trust and the Festival and Competition. This decision was agreed unanimously by the Board, but only after extensive discussion and debate.
As most people will appreciate, the recent Canterbury earthquakes have caused a great deal of damage to the city of Christchurch as well as proving to be psychologically challenging for its inhabitants. The Festival and Competition have been held in two inner city venues, the magnificent Great Hall at the Christchurch Arts Centre, and the equally impressive Christchurch Town Hall. Both these buildings have been significantly damaged in the earthquakes and their fate remains uncertain. What is certain is that they will be out of action for several years at least. We considered alternative venues, but felt that much of the heart of the Festival and Competition lay in these particular places and would be lost if we moved to other venues, even if potentially suitable such venues did exist.
In addition, there is the risk of future aftershocks, adding an additional layer of uncertainty, especially for judges and competitors travelling from overseas. Financial planning for the Festival and Competition was also compromised, and even though the Festival finances were in excellent shape at the time of the earthquakes, it was impossible to accurately forecast future sponsor revenue because of the devastating impact of this natural disaster.
The Trust is indebted to all our sponsors over the years without whose assistance the continuing existence of the Festival and Competition would have been impossible. I would like to particularly mention The Adam Foundation, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Naxos, Creative NZ and the Christchurch City Council, all of whom were major sponsors. In addition many other individuals and organisations have offered their unstinting support, and for all of this we are hugely grateful. I would also like to mention two new sponsors who came on board in anticipation of our next Festival – Air New Zealand and the Ron Ball Trust. Sadly we will not have the opportunity to take advantage of their generosity, but are grateful for their promised support.
The first Adam International Cello Festival and Competition was the brainchild of Professor Alexander Ivashkin and his wife, Natalia Pavlutskaya, who were at that time living in Christchurch and teaching cello at the University of Canterbury. They moved to London in 2000 to take up new positions, but Professor Ivashkin continued to act as the Festival's Artistic Director. The Trust would like to acknowledge them both for their vision in setting up the competition and for the ongoing energy and time they have invested in the event. The Festival and Competition has become a highlight of New Zealand's cultural calendar and a greatly admired and respected event on the international stage. The achievements and considerable success of our prize winners over the years is testimony to this. They have all reached great heights in the competitive world of international cello performance.
Finally, I would like to personally thank all Board Trustees, both past and present, who have so selflessly given their time and guidance, allowing us to present the Festival and Competition. There is an enormous amount of work and effort involved in planning and running such a prestigious event, and its success is testimony to their expertise and dedication. We have been ably assisted by our Festival Managers, to whom we are all grateful.
It has been heartbreaking for all of us to reach this decision, but it has been forced upon us by events beyond our control. We do, however, take some comfort in being able to look back with immense pride on our achievement.
Trustees of International Cello Festival Trust: Kate Hartnell (Chairperson), Charlotte Gray, Stephanie Grieve, Gerald Johnstone, Christopher Marshall, Julia Perry, Iola Shelley, Mary Smit, Don Worthington, Gilbert Glausiuss, James Willoughby
Artistic Director
It is bitterly sad that Christchurch, our much loved home for many years, has been so damaged by the series of strong earthquakes between 2010 and 2011.
I would like to express my deepest thanks to everyone who has supported the competition over the last 18 years including sponsors, jury members, competitors and host families. In particular the Board of Trustees who have provided endless energy, time, sophistication and creativity in order to develop one the world's finest music festivals.
Festival prize winners Wolfgang Schmidt, Liwei Qin, Tatyana Vassilieva, Monika Leskovar, Nicolas Altsteadt, Danjulo Ishizaka, Laslo Fenyo and Gautier Capucon are now well established as leading international stars with flourishing careers - a
brilliant 'bunch' of musicians of the highest calibre I believe equal to that of any in the history of any competition in the world. Many, many of the other contestants have embarked on distinguished careers as chamber musicians or teachers.
Our international jury panels have been a virtual who's who of world reknowne cellists and musicians including Mstislav Rostropovich, Siegfried Palm, Laurence Lesser, David Geringas, Young Chan Cho, Karine Georgian, Lluis Claret, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Natalia Pavlutskaya, Phillippe Muller, Gary Hoffmann, Frans Helmerson, Markus Stocker, David Pereira and Georg Pedersen.
Numerous Australian and New Zealand cellists took a part in the Festival dramatically raising the standards of performance in Australasia. To name but a few Victoria Simonsen has become a member of the leading British chamber groups and orchestras, Ashley Brown - a member of the acclaimed NZ Trio and previous tutor at Auckland University, Rachel Johnston is cellist with Australian String Quartet, Mok-Hyun Gibson-Lane is playing in the orchestra in Berlin, Miranda Wilson - is a professor of cello at the University of Idaho in the USA, David Garner is the Cello Principal with Auckland Philharmonia and Patrick Murphy is a Cello Professor in Brisbane.
I am proud of our achievements and believe the Festival will be remembered as a truly historic and unique event, both in terms of its format and its fantastic results.
A toast to all of our winners and competitors and a heartfelt thank you to international jury panel members and to our many sponsors and dedicated supporters
For more information contact:
Catherine Lister
Ph. 0064 21 430 351
email: catherine@nzcellofest.com