The Michael Hill International Violin Competition aims to promote young violinists from all over the world who are launching their professional solo careers and are aspiring to establish themselves on the world stage; to recognise and encourage excellence and musical artistry, and to expand performance opportunities (including playing New Zealand repertoire).
Note: These voting procedures will be in force as of 1 January 2011 and may be updated for clarification from time to time.
- Task of the Selection Panel
- General Information
- Voting Procedures
- Determining the NZ and Australian Development Prize Winners
- Task of the International Jury
- General Information
- Voting after Semi-final Rounds I and II
- Voting for best performance of the New Zealand Competition
- Voting after Semi-final Round III
- Voting after the Final Round
- Voting for best performance of the Chamber Music Prize
- Voting for Michael Hill Audience Prize
Task of the Selection Panel
To select, from the applications, the top 18 (plus 6 alternates) to be semi-finalists and compete further in the live New Zealand rounds.
The competition administration will only provide the panel with recordings submitted with completed applications that meet the competition’s criteria for eligibility.
The panel will be in receipt of the applicants’ recordings only; the identities of the applicants will not be made known to the panel until the conclusion of the assessment.
The panel may at any time, and at its discretion, disqualify any applicant if the recording supplied is not of a suitable quality to adequately assess.
The announcement of the semi-finalists will be made only by the competition’s Director. The semi-finalists and alternates will be personally contacted; their names will be available on the competition’s website.
Round I
4 out of 5 members of the panel must agree to eliminate any applicant on the basis of his/her recording.
Round II (if required at the discretion of the judges, otherwise judging to proceed directly to Round III)
4 out of 5 members of the panel must agree to eliminate any applicant on the basis of his/her recording.
Round III
During this final round, the members of the panel will be asked to give each remaining applicant a score. At the completion of the round, the totals will be tallied from the full panel, and composite scores will be thus calculated for each remaining applicant. The 18 applicants with the highest scores will automatically be selected to advance to the Semi-final Rounds with the next 6 highest scores to be automatically selected as alternatives in high-score order.
Determining the NZ and Australian Development Prize Winners
The winners are identified directly after the application round assessment as the New Zealander and Australian that received the highest score, but who is not selected as a semi-finalist.
Task of the International Jury
Judges are allowed to make notes in whatever form is useful to assist their decision-making. These notes are for personal use only and will not be shared with any competitor.
Judges are not allowed to discuss any aspect of the Competition with competitors at any time during the Competition and are requested to avoid any contact with the participants as long as the Competition is being held.
Judges are obliged to attend all rounds of the Competition. In the unfortunate event of illness or emergency, that Judge will be excluded from that entire round of Competition.
Judges are not allowed to discuss any competitor's merits or weaknesses nor disclose any observations about any competitor at any time during the Competition. This includes avoiding making any positive or negative comments or gestures during the performances.
The Chairman will serve as official time-keeper for the Semi-final Rounds and will ensure that timing specified for each stage is not exceeded. At his discretion, he may choose to stop a competitor who has exceeded the maximum number of minutes in any round.
Each Judge will be provided with appropriate voting ballots.
The Judges are requested to make themselves available for a short time after Semi-final Rounds II and III to provide constructive criticism to semi-finalists not advancing beyond those stages. Additionally, the Judges are requested to make themselves available to provide constructive criticism to the finalists following the final round.
The announcement of the prize winners will be made only by the Chairman. The distribution of prizes will take place during a special ceremony at the final concert.
Voting after Semi-final Rounds I and II
- Each juror votes (in confidence) for his/her first choice of semi-finalist to be advanced to Round III. The semi-finalist that achieves a majority vote is disclosed and advances. In the case there is not a clear majority, a preferential voting system will be adopted that drops off competitors until one achieves a clear majority.
- The advancing semi-finalist is disclosed and on that basis judges will be asked to vote for his/her first choice of the remaining semi-finalists. The semi-finalist with the most votes is disclosed and advances.
- The procedure in step 2 is repeated until 6 semi-finalists to advance to Semi-final Round III have been chosen.
Commentary: The idea behind this method of voting it to ensure that any candidate progressing has the vote of the majority of the panel, and that no vote from a panel member is ever wasted.
Voting for best performance of the New Zealand Composition
For a clear majority to be reached, a violinist must receive a vote in favour from four of the judges. In the event a clear majority does not result in the first instance, the same procedure shall apply.
Voting after Semi-final Round III
The same procedure will be adopted. At each stage the semi-finalist with the most votes will advance and the votes cast will be disclosed (but not attributed) at each stage. For a clear majority to be reached, a violinist must receive a vote in favour from 4 of the 7 judges. In the event a clear majority does not result in the first instance, the same procedure shall apply.
After the final round the judges will be asked to vote for first prize, second prize, and third prize.
At the completion of the final round each juror will be asked to vote (in confidence) for his/her first choice of finalist to be awarded 1st prize. If a finalist receives a majority of the votes he or she will be declared the winner. If there is no majority the same procedure shall apply.
Voting for best performance of the Chamber Music Prize
For a clear majority to be reached, a violinist must receive a vote in favour from four of the judges. In the event a clear majority does not result in the first instance, the same procedure shall apply. This prize is announced at the final prize giving.
Voting for Michael Hill Audience Prize
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