Moment of truth for rising piano stars
At the end of August, 12 young pianists will perform in a high-stakes contest to win one of the SAMRO Foundation's lucrative scholarships.
Following an intensive selection process, six candidates in the Jazz/Popular Music category and six in the Western Art Music genre were selected as semi-finalists in the 2013 SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition, which is open to keyboard players this year.
They are gearing up to play in front of a judging panel during the intermediate round on 29 August 2013, during which the top two candidates in each category will be selected to go into the final round.
The two finalists in each genre will then go head to head in a musical duel that never fails to produce creative fireworks, during the final round on Saturday, 31 August 2013, at the SABC's M1 Studio in Auckland Park, Johannesburg. Two R170 000 scholarships - one for the best jazz candidate, one for the best western art music candidate - are up for grabs.
The 12 gifted young pianists hail from around the country, and range in age from 22 to 29. Five are based in the Western Cape, another five candidates call Gauteng home, one is from Durban and another was born in Bloemfontein.
They have all excelled in their undergraduate music studies, and are now looking to further their education at postgraduate level at an international tertiary institution, should they win one of the two prized SAMRO Foundation scholarships on offer this year.
For more information on the competition, contact Naseema Yusuf at az.gro.ormas@fusuy.ameesan, or go to www.samrofoundation.org.za.
