11-YEAR-OLD MIKE WANG WINS HENNIE JOUBERT NATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

An 11-year-old pianist from the Strand near Cape Town, Mike Wang, won the overall first prize in the 2018 Hennie Joubert National Piano Competition in Stellenbosch on Friday, 16 March. He also received an additional three special prizes.

In second place was Gerhard Joubert (17) from Stellenbosch, while Qden Blaauw (13) from Durbanville won the third prize.

The Hennie Joubert National Competition is one of South Africa’s most prestigious competitions for young pianists. It is presented every second year as part of the Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium.

The first two initial rounds of the competition were held on Monday 12 March and Tuesday 13 March. Five finalists were then chosen to perform on Friday in the final round where each pianist played a movement from a piano concerto, accompanied by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Corvin Matei.

Mike Wang, who gave a riveting performance of the first movement (allegro con brio) of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 in C Major at the final round, was awarded a gold medal, the Hennie Joubert trophy, and R25 000 in prize money.

He also won three special prizes in the competition: the prizes for Best Prelude and Fugue by JS Bach in Round 2 (R1 000), Best Performance of a Virtuoso Etude in Round 2 (R1 000), as well as Best Performance of a South African Work in Round 2 (R1 000).

Currently, Mike is a Grade 6 learner at Hendrik Louw Primary School in the Strand and a piano pupil of Mario Nell in Stellenbosch. He made his debut as a soloist with the Hugo Lambrechts Symphony Orchestra in August 2017 – and in the same year was the overall winner of the 2017 SAMRO Hubert van der Spuy Music Competition.

Gerhard Joubert, who won the second prize of a silver medal and prize money of R15 000, also received an award for the Best Recital in Round 3 (R1 000) and the Joan de Villiers Prize for the best performance of a Classical Sonata in Round 3 (R3 000). Gerhard performed the first movement (allegro) from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.12 in A Major, K414, in the final round.

Qden Blaauw, who performed the first movement from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21 in C Major, K467, received a bronze medal and R12 000 in prize money as the overall third prize.

The fourth position in the competition went to Beata Boshoff (16) from the Free State, who won R8 000, while Simon Wu received R4 000 in prize money for the fifth position. The André Serfontein Prize, presented by this former organiser of the competition to the most promising candidate not to advance to the final, went to Milano Reyneke (R1 000).