Year 12 music student Hannah Jones was recently announced as the Junior Winner of the New Zealand Chamber Music Composition Competition.
Her piece, entitled “Extranjero Tango”, was scored for violin, viola and piano. The title means ‘foreign tango’ because the tango style (originally from Argentina) is not regarded as an authentic New Zealand musical style. “I enjoyed working with chromatic scales in this tango, however, it was a challenge to ensure the violin and viola melodies worked well together, especially as I am not a string player, but a saxophonist and singer,” says Hannah.
This year’s entries were judged by Clare Cowan (composer of the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s recent production of Hansel and Gretel). The competition is so widely entered by secondary school composition students from around New Zealand, that both a Junior and Senior winner is selected. Like all senior music students, Hannah receives weekly tuition from Westlake’s Composer-in-Residence, David Hamilton, who is himself a well-known New Zealand composer.
The Residence Programme was first initiated to encourage and inspire Westlake composition students and there have been numerous winners of both national and international competitions over many years under David’s expert tutelage.