Michael Hill Winners Announced for Round 2!

Michael Hill winners announced for the second round of the competition!

Richard Lin accepts his award

Congratulations to:

• Stefani Collins, US
• Nadir Khashimov, Uzbekistan/US
• Richard Lin, Taiwan/US LIN
• Sergey Malov, Russia
• Eric Silberger, US
• Xiang Yu, China

Also, a particular acknowledgement to Richard Lin, winner of the Best Performance of a New Zealand Commissioned Work!

Applause to the other 12 competitors for making it to the competition and performing with such heart. That in itself is an incredible accomplishment. Selected videos of the winners below. Photos are available on the Michael Hill website for round 2 (Sunday June 5 and Monday June 6)

Stefani Collins – Wieniawski: Variations on an Original Theme, Op 15

Nadir Khashimov – Brahms: Sonata No 3 in D minor, movements 3 & 4

Richard Lin – Psathas: Gyftiko

Sergey Malov – Ravel: Tzigane

Eric Silberger – Waxman: Carmen Fantasie

Xiang Yu – Tchaikovsky: Valse-Scherzo, op. 23

With the Michael Hill winners announced, this wraps up the portion of the competition in Queenstown. Tuesday is a break as everyone moves back to Auckland for round III, which starts on Wednesday June 8. Joined by New Zealand favorites, Michael Houstoun (piano) and Ashley Brown (cello), round III will test the competitors’ chamber music chops on the complete piano trios of Beethoven, Ravel, Dvořák and Schuman