Wine, dine and enjoy classical music
Tahuna-based classical pianist Kinga Krupa will be performing with violinist Rose Light this Friday to raise funds for the youth programmes of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition. A free performance will take place at the Atheneum Hall Arrowtown in the afternoon, and a dinner will be held at Oro Restaurant at the Carlin that evening.
The prestigious competition will take place across Queenstown and Auckland in June and will bring together 16 of the world’s finest young violinists to compete. The aim is to launch the careers of future musicians and the prize package is valued at over $100,000. These two warm-up events will both raise money and aim to encourage people to attend the competition’s performances.
Kinga is a classical concert pianist and offers lessons in Queenstown. She has a Masters degree in Piano Performance and is passionate about the local community and helping to bring classical music to everyone. Due to Covid the last competition was run as a smaller-scale local version that was called the Whakatipu Music Festival, and everyone is excited to see it return in full this year.
“These upcoming concerts, one in Arrowtown and one at the Carlin Hotel, are live tasters to bring that awareness back and promote the upcoming competition,” says Kinga.
“I’m playing with a violinist who’s in Wellington studying. Together, we’re putting on a programme of Mozart, Massenet, Tchaikovsky, and others – we’re performing a lot of violin music. During the competition, I have a different role as I won’t be competing.”
Kinga and Rose were connected through Anne Rodda, the Executive Director of the festival, and have been hard at work practicing. They will have their first rehearsal together just before their performances.
“The goal is to promote the upcoming competition – international violinists will be coming here and they’re playing concerts, which you can come and listen to. It will all be in Queenstown Memorial Hall, and we’re trying to encourage the community to take part in the concert and listen to the finest violinists coming to New Zealand.
“The first concert in Arrowtown is free and family- and community-orientated. The second concert at Oro is one with fine dining and half of the ticket sales are going to the foundation to support young musicians.
“We want to bring classical music to Queenstown and promote good education and great-quality music,” says Kinga.
The concerts will take place on Friday 21 April at 2pm at the Arrowtown Atheneum Hall and 8pm at Oro Restaurant at the Carlin Hotel, where Sir Michael Hill will be the MC. Tickets for the evening performance are $200 and can be purchased by going to ororestaurant.co.nz and going to their reservations section or calling 03 222 7546. More information on the June competition can be found at michaelhillviolincompetition.co.nz
