2026 Auckland Music Festival
11th Music Competition
28th to 30th September 2026
Entry Closing Date: 23:00 16th August, 2026
Venue: Symphonia Music Centre
Address: 57/59 Wellington Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland 1011
APMA Syllabus
| ampa2026.pdf |
2026 Competition Syllabus
Adjudicator:
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Sylvia Jiang,
Hailed by criHcs as a pianist capable of transcending the “superhuman” (NZ Herald ’24), Sylvia Jiang’s performances have delighted audiences across the globe. As a graduate of the Juilliard School and Johns Hopkins University, she was inducted in 2023 as a member of the Astral ArHsts roster aTer being named as a winner in the Astral ArHsts CompeHHon. Sylvia is also the sole recipient of Peabody Conservatory’s ArHst Diploma Award in her cohort. Her performances have been featured on BBC News, Washington Post, New Zealand Herald, TV3, ABC Australia, Radio New Zealand Concert, and other notable news networks and publicaHons. Over the years, she has won numerous top prizes at naHonal and internaHonal level compeHHons including the presHgious HasHngs InternaHonal, Music Academy of the West, Astral ArHst, Kerikeri, Lev Vlassenko and Wallace NaHonal Piano CompeHHons. She currently studies with Richard Goode, Yong Hi Moon, and graduated from Juilliard under Robert McDonald. In 2024, Sylvia cemented her partnership with Steinway by being inducted as a Young Steinway ArHst. As an avid soloist, Sylvia has performed with numerous internaHonal orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Queensland Symphony, and Juilliard Chamber Orchestras. She has performed extensively in Australasia, Europe, Asia and North America at venues such as Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, the Concert Hall at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Banff Center in Canada, and The Morgan Library in New York City. As a keen collaborator sought- aTer educator, Sylvia has held teaching fellowship posiHons at the Juilliard School and Music Academy of the West and has been invited to give masterclasses globally. She currently serves as the ArHsHc Director and co- founder of non-profit organizaHon Muffin Music which provides music outreach, performance series, and elite musical training in the California area. She was invited to be a featured soloist in The Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Miami City Ballet where she worked with choreographer Pam Tanowitz on a new commission combining both dance companies. |
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Lisa Chung - Cellist
Lisa holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in cello performance from University of Auckland. She won a number of competitions and scholarships in NZ and overseas including a full scholarship to study and perform in the prestigious international Music festival in Aspen, Colorado where she collaborated with top international musicians such as Darrett Adkins (Juilliard School). She also studied with Natalia Shakhovskaya at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Lisa’s students are currently winning national and international competitions; her students have been performing in Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in New York and Wiener Saal Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. One of them was invited to compete at the Tchaikovsky International Competition for Young Musicians in 2017. Her students also have participated in the Young Artist Program at Curtis Institute of Music. Her students’ chamber groups won the Judith Clark National First Place Award in 2023 and the National KBB Award in 2022 at the NZCT Chamber Contest. In the past few years, one of her students got acceptance offers from Oberlin College and New England Conservatory with scholarships. The other two of her students have accepted to Juilliard pre-college with full scholarships. |
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