Winner Of Geoffrey Parsons Award Announced

On Sunday 19 September in Adelaide, Melbourne musician Yasmin Rowe won the $7000 Geoffrey Parsons Award, the Accompanists' Guild of South Australia's national competition for piano accompanists.

Judging panel Chairperson, acclaimed collaborative pianist Leigh Harrold, praised all the contestants on the high standard of their performances saying that it was absolutely inspiring -and indicative of the tenacity and resilience of a new generation of artists. He also congratulated all finalists on their choice of works saying that they were "at the pinnacle" in terms of the complexity that this genre can offer.

"But," he said "there was one finalist in particular where all these elements were in near-perfect balance. This pianist was assertive and supportive, she allowed herself to be inspired by her partner, and in turn often inspired her partner. And yet, one wasn't really aware of any of these machinations, because everything was subsumed towards the end goal of conveying the true essence of the music. For these reasons, the panel decided unanimously to give the 2021 Geoffrey Parsons Award to Yasmin Rowe."

Yasmin 22, won the award despite being in lockdown in Melbourne. She and her associate artist, cellist Yelian He, performed via a pre-recording which was screened to a live audience here in Adelaide.

For the first time in this award's long history, Interstate entries were accepted in digital format: USB's, Video, YouTube or DVD.