NZSO TODD Corporation Young Composers Award announced

28 November 2013 - Press release for immediate release

Winner of the NZSO TODD Corporation Young Composers Award announced

On Tuesday, 20-year-old Salina Fisher was named the winner of the NZSO TODD Corporation Young Composers Award 2013.

Salina’s winning composition, Shadows of the Mind, was selected from nine works by participants in this year’s NZSO TODD Corporation Young Composers Award workshop.

“When they read out my name, I was really shocked,” Salina said. “This is my first time [at the Award workshops], so just getting the opportunity to have my piece played was the prize, really.”

The NZSO TODD Corporation Young Composers Award has been going for nine years and any composer up to the age of 25 is able to enter by submitting a composition. Entries are assessed by a panel of established New Zealand musicians, and selected applicants are invited to attend the three-day event where they attend mentoring sessions and tutorials, have the opportunity to workshop their piece with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and walk away with a recording of their work courtesy of Radio New Zealand Concert.

This year the composer mentor was Anthony Ritchie, whose work is regularly performed in New Zealand and abroad, and the NZSO played under well-known Kiwi conductor Hamish McKeich.

“Working with Anthony and Hamish was amazing, really amazing. They knew each of the pieces really well and were so encouraging of us all,” Salina commented. “You could tell they really cared about the work we were producing.”

Salina, who won a cash prize of $750, moved from Christchurch to Wellington for study. She has just completed a BMus at the New Zealand School of Music in Violin and Composition, and will return in 2014 to study for Honours in Composition. She is a talented violinist, performing in the NZSO National Youth Orchestra since 2010 and being selected as Concertmaster for the 2012 season.

“I’m definitely going to keep exploring composition, as well as taking private violin lessons. My dream for the future is to be able to balance playing violin in an orchestra with opportunities to compose,” she said.

Nine composers from Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington took part in this year’s Award workshop, with three additional composers attending the workshop as observers.

This Award programme is made possible through the generous support of the TODD Corporation, and has enabled the recording of approximately 70 new works since the event’s inception in 2005. For more about the NZSO Todd Corporation Young Composers Awards click here >.

ENDS

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