Dunedin high schools swapped notes at the weekend.
Interschool rivalries were put to one side as a trio made up of pupils from Bayfield High School, Columba College and John McGlashan College won the Dunedin district section of the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest at Marama Hall.
Zero to Hero musicians Elliot Tay (clarinet), Jacinda Kumar (violin) and Paddy Ou (piano) won the local contest with Movements 1 and 2 of Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano, by Aram Khachaturian.
The two-day contest featured more than 150 young Dunedin musicians from 12 high schools competing in 49 ensembles.
The adjudicator of the Dunedin contest was pianist Richard Mapp.
Zero to Hero will join 11 other ensembles from the 15 district contests in the national final in Christchurch on August 1 and 2.
A record 507 ensembles, involving more than 2000 young New Zealand musicians, have entered in the 49th annual contest.
Each member of the winning group at the national final will receive a $1000 James Wallace Arts Trust Prize.
Results were. -
Winner: Zero to Hero; Elliot Tay (clarinet), Jacinda Kumar (violin) and Paddy Ou (piano). Highly commended: Suite Saxs (Logan Park High School), Brahmsians (King's High School and St Hilda's Collegiate School) and Just So Natural (Logan Park High School and Otago Boys' High School). Adjudicator's award: Serendipity (Columba College). Best performance of a work by a New Zealand composer: Suite Saxs (Logan Park High School).
