THE FESTIVAL
History
The New Zealand International Piano Festival (NZIPF) formerly known as the Auckland International Piano Festival was created in 2005 by internationally acclaimed concert pianist and Steinway Artist, Tamas Vesmas. His vision was to present a Piano Festival that would expose Auckland audiences to some of the world’s top concert pianists.
In addition to solo and duo piano recitals, each pianist conducted master classes for our emerging pianists. These master classes have become invaluable to the development of many of our talented up and coming pianists providing them with the rare opportunity for input and advice from seasoned international concert pianist professionals.The Festival was run in July over a 10 – 14 day period and showcased up to five international and one New Zealand concert pianist at the Raye Freedman Centre in Epsom.
At the end of 2008, Tamas and his wife Catherine returned to Paris to live. However, Tamas was determined to see the festival continue and approached John Eady from Lewis Eady Ltd – the New Zealand Steinway agent – for assistance. Recognising the value and potential of the festival to New Zealand’s community John Eady established an independent committee to continue, with Tamas as the Artistic Director.