Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition

11/06/2026

Fabulous footage of Australian Chamber Music Competition alumni, Benaud Trio. Thanks for posting, guys!

06/06/2026

Congratulations, Beatrice, you were stunning! Congratulations also to the other wonderful finalists and Auckland Philharmonia/Alan Buribayev for supporting these brilliant young soloists so magnificently. Bravo Team MHIVC for a wonderful 25th anniversary celebration. Michael Hill would have been very proud.

06/06/2026

Congratulations, Beatrice! You were stunning! Congratulations to the other prize winners too - you are all amazing! Bravo also to Team MHIVC for another wonderful competition and to Auckland Philharmonia and Alan Buribayev for supporting these incredible young musicians so magnificently. Michael Hill would have been very proud of this 25th anniversary event.

Violinist Beatrice Colombis from Australia will receive NZ$40,000, a recording contract with the Atoll label, and a multi-centre Winner’s Tour.

06/06/2026

Terrific piece from one of the world’s most interesting quartets on what winning a big competition meant for their career.

“Before the ARD, we had no career. We were doing perhaps 10 concerts a year. Then overnight it went to 135.”

Twenty years ago (actually, 22) Quatuor Ebène burst onto the chamber music scene after winning the ARD International Music Competition, or the "Olympic Games of music", as it has been dubbed by Simon Rattle.

This year is a full-circle moment, when first violinist Pierre Colombet sits on the jury of the String Quartet category. In our latest interview, Colombet and second violinist Gabriel Le Magadure reflect on where they have come from and the evolving – and not always easy – landscape for young quartets starting out today.

🔗 READ the interview 👉 https://bachtrack.com/interview-quatuor-ebene-ambassadors-chamber-music-ard-competition-june-2026

📸 Quatuor Ébène (l-r): Yuya Okamoto, Gabriel Le Magadure, Marie Chilemme, Pierre Colombet © Julien Mignot

05/06/2026

Bravo to all three finalists - what a great night it will be! And thank you, MHIVC team, for bringing home another great competition and giving these wonderful musicians such a life-changing opportunity.

Three violinists will compete in the competition's final stage on June 6 with conductor Alan Buribayev and the Auckland Philharmonia.

02/06/2026

Welcome back to the Doric Quartet, MICMC alumni, with fabulous Lloyd Van’t Hoff. Don’t miss them!

London’s Doric String Quartet joins Australian clarinettist Lloyd Van't Hoff for a program that turns sound into gold.

Featuring Ludwig van Beethoven, Benjamin Britten and Alchymia by Thomas Adès, this extraordinary collaboration tours nationally in 2026.

Tickets on sale now: https://www.musicaviva.com.au/concert-season/2026/doric-string-quartet-lloyd-vant-hoff/

[ID: A promotional poster for the Doric String Quartet and Lloyd Van't Hoff performing with Musica Viva Australia. ]

02/06/2026

Wonderful to see our own Beatrice Colombis (Sydney/Berlin) announced amongst the 6 semi-finalists going to Auckland for the chamber music round! Also winning the prize for best performance of Salina Fisher’s piece. Go Beatrice!

The semi-finalists in New Zealand’s Michael Hill International Violin Competition 2026, generously supported by the Hill Family Foundation for Arts and Music, have been announced.

Following four exceptional days of quarter-finals at the Queenstown Memorial Centre, in which 16 extraordinary violinists from across the world each performed two programmes of work, the judges have selected the following six Competitors to move through to Round III - the Chamber round - in Auckland this week (in their performance order):

Wednesday 3 June:
Hyein Koo (Seoul)
Tianyou Ma (New York)
Beatrice Colombis (Sydney/Berlin)

Thursday 4 June:
Jakow Pavlenko (Berlin)
Xunyue Zhang (Berlin)
Julia Wang (Vienna)

Beatrice Colombis also received the NZD$1000 prize for Best Performance of a New Zealand-commissioned Work - Salina Fisher’s 'Chasm' (please visit our Youtube page to view it).

The semi-finalists each perform a piano quintet with eminent NZ musicians; NZTrio violinist Amalia Hall, cellist Matthias Balzat and pianist Jian Liu, and Auckland Philharmonia violist Robert Ashworth. Following Thursday's semi-final, the finalists will be announced.

The 2026 Michael Hill International Violin Competition will come to its thrilling climax at Auckland Town Hall this Saturday 6 June. Tickets are on sale via Ticketmaster.

Our sincere congratulations to all semi-finalists, and all competitors for an incredible first two rounds.

27/05/2026

The 10th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition (MICMC) will take place 2 - 9 July 2027. Artistic Director, Wilma Smith, and her dedicated team are determined to secure MICMC’s future. With your support, MICMC can continue to catapult the best young quartets and trios - including our own - onto the world stage and inspire audiences in Melbourne and beyond. Please join Team MICMC and make your tax-deductible donation today: https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2EMn00000ex4gUMAQ/micmc-2027
Feel free to contact Wilma directly: [email protected]

The Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition is one of the world’s great chamber music launching pads.

We discover and nurture the next generation of ensembles, seeking out musicians who personify chamber music’s ability to engage the head and the heart with performances that thrill, delight and inspire.

MICMC ensembles ensure a vibrant future for the artform, redefining the intimate relationships between players, audiences, and composers for the 21st century.

02/05/2026

This looks like an interesting collab with Trio Bohèmo, prize winners from MICMC 2023.

10/03/2026

Interesting question posed by John Garran, a wonderful chamber music and MICMC supporter, on hearing of MICMCs funding issues and transfer from MVA: “Does an international chamber music competition still have a role in the current Australian music scene?”
Helen Ireland asked a question in reply: “Would anyone suggest we don’t still need the Australian Open?”

My point of view:

What Helen said! The Australian Open analogy is a great one. We bring the world’s best to Melbourne and inspire all our own young musicians to aim high - so high, in fact, that Melbourne’s own Affinity Quartet became the first Australian group ever to win the MICMC Grand Prize in 2023. I’ve been speaking to some of our own professionals eg Sophie Rowell, Zoe Knighton, Liz Sellars, and many others who tell me how they were personally inspired by hearing MICMC groups during their formative years. And I know many groups on the international stages now would credit MICMC with a massive developmental leap and career boost at a critical stage, whether they won prizes or not. I personally benefitted enormously from several of MICMCs partner “Grand Slam” international competitions with my first quartet and will do whatever it takes to make sure future Dorics, Eggners, Bohemos, Jean Pauls, St Lawrences, Kelemens, St Petersbergs etc have the launching pad they need and future Affinities growing up in Oz have the chance to be inspired to great heights themselves.