Talent of piano award finalists making Goulburn Valley ‘sing’

By Murray Silby

Oct 11, 2022

Housemates: Australian Piano Award finalist Bowen Li, right, and host Roly Hunt. Photo by Megan Fisher

“The house sings with his music.”

There are many ways to be awoken in the morning. An overly dedicated rooster, building works next door or a small child leaping on to a bed with no care for where their knee lands.

One of the most soothing, however, must surely be the sweet sound floating through the house of a baby grand piano being played by a world class pianist.

That is the way of Shepparton resident Roly Hunt this week.

Mr Hunt is hosting Bowen Li, who is a finalist in the $65,000 Australian Piano Award at Riverlinks Eastbank, this week.

There are nine finalists between the ages of 21 and 35 who play a range of solo recitals on a Steinway grand piano purchased in partnership between the award and Greater Shepparton City Council.

“We hosted some years ago, but not for a while and hosting is a wonderful experience,” Mr Hunt said.

“You get to meet a competitor and the house is full of music, and it gives you an interest in one particular fellow, but it's more the involvement in the competition as a whole, that you feel like you're contributing, and in turn, you contribute to the cultural activity of the town.”

Mr Li’s backstory echoes those of the greats too.

A five-year-old boy wanders over to a piano and starts playing it, his parents see something in his enthusiasm for the instrument and enrol him in lessons.

Two and a half decades later he is fulfilling that promise, and the foresight by his parents.

From Carlingford in Sydney, Mr Li laughs at the suggestion his story rings like a tale that is a prerequisite for musical greatness.

“I don't know about greatness, but I’m destined for the piano,” he said.

Mr Li was originally named as a finalist in the award in 2020, but intermissions for COVID-19 have meant he, and many of the other finalists, have had to wait until this year for their chance to shine.

“I hope it means I’m two years more experienced,” he said.

Studying a doctorate in musical arts, he practises for up to five hours a day in his search for perfection, and finds the relaxed and hospitable nature of being billeted for the week of competition conducive to that.

“It's nice, because the last time I did a competition like this, we were put in dorms, and I had the worst dorm-mate. He set an alarm from 6am every five minutes until 7.30,” he said.

“So this is fantastic. I mean, this is a great, great house to live in. A great host taking extremely good care of me, going way out of his way to make sure that I'm comfortable, which I definitely, definitely appreciate.”

A prerequisite for being a host is the possession of a piano in the home, for which Mr Li is most grateful.

“Yes, yes, which is also very convenient, it’s about 10 metres away from my bed, which is the way I like it,” he said.

Mr Hunt has been on the associates committee, which helps organise the award, since 2001.

He said finalists appreciated the support the Goulburn Valley public had provided over the award’s 30 years in Shepparton.

“They’re used to playing to empty houses, whereas here there is normally quite a good audience and on a Saturday night with the final, there is four or five hundred people here,” he said.

Mr Hunt said organisers were always working to build audiences though, with a special focus on reaching younger people.

“We would like there to be much more involvement with younger people, much bigger audiences and so on, but we are told by the competitors that the audiences they have here are often much larger than they have elsewhere,” he said.

“It is literally world class music. Literally. People come from all over the world. There are restrictions on them, but they come from all over the world and it's just a terrific standard of music and a great cultural achievement for the town.”