Miss Hristova (23) returns for a public recital with competition pianist Sarah Watkins in the Queenstown Memorial Hall at 1pm tomorrow.
"The second we start thinking that it is a contest and that we are being judged, we start playing in order to please someone and lose our point of view," she told the Otago Daily Times from Christchurch yesterday.
Born in Bulgaria, Miss Hristova moved to the United States aged 13 and has studied there ever since.
As winner of the 2007 competition, she made a critically-acclaimed concert tour of New Zealand and recorded a CD of solo violin works by the Belgian virtuoso, Charles de Berio.
"I enjoyed all of it [the contest], especially the chamber music round in the semifinal and the Brahms concerto in the final," she said.
"I had a gasp very similar to the girls on Miss America when they announced the winner.
"The most nerve-racking part wasn't the playing; it was waiting for the results."
The semifinals of the 2009 competition continued in the Memorial Hall yesterday, with nine international violinists on stage for the judging panel.
The remaining nine perform today from 9.30am.
The panel's chosen six will be announced today about 5.30pm in the hall.
They will go on to a third semifinal round in the Auckland Town Hall on June 6-9.
The winner will be chosen from the three finalists in the final round in the Auckland Town Hall on June 11.
