Kiwi Keyboard Artists Aim To Make New Zealand Proud With Maxwell Fernie Dame Malvina Major Foundation Award

Kiwi organists Matthew Chanwai (Ngati Kahu) and Rebecca
Lee have been named as recipients of the Maxwell Fernie Dame
Malvina Major Foundation award for 2024.

Matthew, who
was the 2023 Head Boy of St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton,
is set to complete a Bachelor of Arts (Music Tripos) with
Honours at the University of Cambridge. He will also be the
Organ Scholar of Downing College, University of Cambridge,
the only remaining College which has an Organ Scholar
responsible for every facet of running the College
Choir.

Rebecca, who is
currently based in Germany, will be putting her award
towards her studies for the Master- Claviorganum degree at
the Hamburg Conservatory, Germany.

“I want to make
New Zealand proud with the talents I am shaping and
developing here in Germany. My goal is to contribute to the
development of high quality New Zealand arts,” says
Rebecca.

2023’s
award winner, Zosia Herlihy-O’Brien, is undertaking her
second year of a Master of Music at the Royal Academy of
Music in London. In June she was formally installed as the
Organist of the Charterhouse in London, only the second
female organist since its founding in the 1600s. Zosia will
also be performing a solo organ recital in Dorset in
September.

The Maxwell Fernie Dame Malvina Major
Foundation Award honours the memory of acclaimed New Zealand
organist, conductor and teacher, Maxwell Fernie. The annual
award is to support young keyboard artists to further their
education or training in the organ. The award is managed
through the Maxwell Fernie Trust by the Dame Malvina Major
Foundation.

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