NZSM violin student has masterclass with global superstar

It’s not every day that a music student can say that they were taught by one of the greatest living violinists in the world but that’s exactly what happened to Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music student Shanita Sungsuwan.

Shanita was one of three music students who had the experience of a lifetime in August by having a masterclass with renowned Russian-born violinist Maxim Vengerov.

The global superstar performs with many of the world’s leading orchestras and is in such high demand it took until 2024 to secure his first ever performances in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The masterclass at the Michael Fowler Centre was organised by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra ahead of his concerts with the NZSO and Auckland Philharmonia.

Shanita, who was also a member of this year’s NZSO National Youth Orchestra, for the masterclass performed the first movement of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’ famous Violin Concerto.  For his New Zealand concerts Maxim Vengerov performed Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in its entirety.

The other students, 2024 NZSO National Youth Orchestra Co-Concertmaster Esther Oh and First Violinist Xavier Ngaro, performed from Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto and Bruch’s Violin Concerto and respectively.

The Masterclass was free and open to the public, with 250 in attendance in the Michael Fowler Centre, while more than 500 people around New Zealand and overseas watched via a free livestream on the Orchestra’s streaming portal NZSO+.

Maxim Vengerov’s performance with the NZSO, led by German conductor André de Ridder, was praised by Wellington newspaper The Post.

“His exceptional technical control could be seen in the way he would give a line a beautiful tone and shape – then end it with a quite different pace or dynamic, surprisingly but compellingly. Towards the end of the opening movement his sound was almost hypnotic. The orchestra were just as good.”