2019 Festival Testimonials

The festival was very successful, and especially helpful for my daughters. They both grew immensely as musicians and took back beneficial skills from the renowned tutors. It was amazing to see such a high standard of music being performed by students of such young ages.

Peng , Ping (Parent of Marian and Malissa Sun) - Palmerston North

The New Zealand International Young Artists Festival, was truly an amazing experience that equipped me with knowledge and skills that were definitely worthwhile. The teachers that taught me were very helpful and the schedules were packed with very informative classes such as masterclasses, concert opportunities and much more. It was a very enjoyable experience and I met many talented people at this festival!
Ashani Waidyatillake - Auckland New Zealand

This was an ambitious and highly successful inaugural festival with high calibre tutors, talented and motivated students, interesting programmes and supportive audiences. The opportunities for the students were many and varied - opportunities for one-on-one learning, group tuition, masterclasses, solo and group performances, and opportunities to benefit from hearing performances from peers and from professional musicians. Despite multiple events and the intensity of the schedule, the week ran extremely smoothly with great goodwill from all involved. The students themselves were highly supportive of each other, made noticeable musical progress over the course of the festival, and best of all, seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Full credit to the organisers, musicians, families, sponsors and other supporters for a fabulous week of music.

Cathy Manning -Manning Studio, Mt Eden (one of the festival venues)

My son attended the 2019 NZ International Piano Music Festival early in the New Year. He enjoyed the Festival experiencing what life was like as a Musician. Throughout the week-long festival, he was surrounded by fellow pianist as well as Professionals (local and international) who were very supported and were genuinely interested in the music that they/he was currently playing as well as the changes in order to improve, as well as feedback in general relating to performance and how to interact with an Orchestra as a Piano Soloist The feedback that was provided by each of the tutors with international backgrounds helped to provide an encompassing perspective on the music overall, this was then capped off with the ability to perform the Mozart Piano Concerto with NZ Chamber Orchestra. Thank you! My son really enjoyed the week and was exhausted at the end but thoroughly enjoyed himself as well as the music making.
Shaun

Thanks so much for organizing the APO Summer Festival. I, as a fellow student, learnt many important things from the teachers and the experience. Master classes allowed me and many others to

Learn from others
Perform in front of many people who were strangers and finally
Be taught by amazing masters of this age.

Private one-to-one classes helped me improve my skill and technique enormously and even though I have only played my pieces for a short amount of time, after the private lessons, it sounded as though I have been playing my pieces for a long time.
Despite all the excitement in the week, the most enjoyable hours was when the teachers decided to have a concert with them playing, not us. They set up really good role models for us fellow students to look up to. Last but not least, two duets were assigned to me and my duet partner, at first, these pieces seemed impossible to be performed, but after cooperating, we managed to find the way to make the performance super exciting. This Festival has been really exciting with master classes, private lessons and marvelous masters of the piano. Thanks for organizing this event, I really am grateful for it.

Yuzhang Wu