MEDIA RELEASE: Geoffrey Parsons Award Winners Unite
The Accompanists’ Guild of South Australia is proud to support two of the recent Geoffrey Parsons Award winners in their second program of works from the duo piano repertoire. Michael Ierace (2004 Award winner) and Amir Farid (2007 Award winner) first met in Adelaide in 2005 as state representatives and competitors in the MBS National Final of the Young Performer of the Year Award. South Australian, Michael, took out the prize on that occasion and soon after won the premier awards from the Elder Conservatorium — the Elder Overseas Scholarship and the David Galliver Award. Victorian, Amir won significant awards including the Piano Trio prize at the 2005 Australian Chamber Music Competition with the Benaud Trio ( now a successful chamber ensemble with its own national subscription series) , as an accompanist, for best pianist at the 2006 Mietta Song Recital and, as a soloist, winning the 2006 Australian…
MEDIA RELEASE: 2nd time lucky for 2007 Geoffrey Parsons Award Winner leading young Australian pianist, Amir Farid
Adelaide: Monday 16 July 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE On Thursday evening (12 July), the Finals of the Accompanists’ Guild of SA’s 23rd Geoffrey Parsons Award, named in honour of Australia’s accompanist par excellence for singers, such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Victoria de los Angeles and Olaf Bär, took place in Adelaide at The University of Adelaide. The three Finalists competed for a cash pool of $2,500. They were selected from a group of six pianists who undertook Stage One auditions earlier this week, where they performed prepared works with their chosen associates, sight reading and an unrehearsed reading of the set work, Schumann’s Märchenbilder No. 1, Nicht schnell with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra violist, Cecily Satchell. Judging the Finalists was a panel, chaired by the Guild’s Pianist in Residence for the 2007 Festival of Accompanists, Jean-Paul Sévilla, with local leading pianists and educators, Stephen Whittington and Leonie Hempton. The finalists apart from…