AWE Emerging Artist Mentoring Pathway

Advocating for those who aspire

We are thrilled to welcome four exceptional young New Zealand musicians to the 2026 AWE Emerging Artist Mentoring Pathway. With side-by-side rehearsals, performance opportunities and coaching from our Festival Artists, these musicians will be challenged to explore their artistry and craft in a whole new realm. Not only will they perform within the festival programmes, our Emerging Artists will play for over 2,000 school students throughout the Central Lakes district.

2026 Emerging Artists

A person with curly short hair, smiling, holding a violin and bow, wearing a black shirt, with a blurred background.

Esther Oh

Violin
NZ

Esther Oh is an Auckland-based violinist of South Korean heritage, currently studying at the University of Auckland School of Music. A Pettman National Junior Academy scholarship student from age eleven, Esther has performed as soloist with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, appeared with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Thailand Philharmonic, and served as concertmaster of the National Youth Orchestra for two consecutive years.

  • In 2024, upon invitation by the University of Auckland Dean of Music, Esther represented New Zealand at the Pacific Alliance of Music Schools Summit in Thailand, collaborating with students and faculty from institutions including USC Thornton, San Francisco Conservatory, Seoul National University, and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. That year they were also a Young Artist at the Whakatipu Music Festival.

    2025 brought a further milestone when Esther became the inaugural NZSO–NYO exchange student at the Australian Youth Orchestra National Music Camp in Adelaide.

    2026 highlights include a two-week Fellowship programme at the 25th Michael Hill International Violin Competition and a string quartet intensive with Elder Conservatorium faculty and the Australian String Quartet. This year also marks Esther's second year of conducting workshops with Benjamin Northey and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and their first year in the NZSO Conducting Fellowship.

Woman playing a violin

Solace Ward

Viola
NZ

Solace Ward is a Wellington-based violist and composer, currently completing a double major in classical performance and composition at the New Zealand School of Music, Victoria University of Wellington, where they study with NZSQ violist Gillian Ansell. Originally from Palmerston North, Solace holds an ATCL diploma in violin and an LTCL with Distinction in viola, and leads the viola section of the Wellington Youth Orchestra.

  • A long-standing member of the National Youth Orchestra, Solace served as associate principal violist in 2025. They have been accepted into the NZSQ Adam Summer School chamber music courses in Nelson for the past two consecutive years; in the most recent, they performed Schubert's String Quintet in C major.

    In 2025 Solace won the Wellington Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, performing Anthony Ritchie's Viola Concerto with the orchestra — a work that speaks directly to their commitment to New Zealand music. Alongside their performance work, Solace brings a composer's ear to everything they play, and their dual focus shapes an unusually versatile and searching musical sensibility.

Man carrying a cello

Boudewijn Keenan

Cello
NZ

Cellist Boudewijn Keenan is from Dunedin and is currently studying at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in Melbourne with Howard Penny. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Otago with Dr Heleen du Plessis, before undertaking honours in music at the University of Auckland with James Tennant. He has performed with the Auckland Philharmonia, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of New Zealand.

  • Chamber music is at the heart of Boudewijn's practice. His time studying in Auckland and Melbourne has brought exposure to a wide range of repertoire and ensemble formats, and through the Fiasco Quartet — formed with colleagues from ANAM — he has explored the string quartet literature from Kurtág and Penderecki through to Haydn and Mozart.

    AWE Festival draws him back to the South Island landscape he knows well: alongside the music, he is looking forward to getting out on the trails around Queenstown.

A woman playing a grand piano

Hana Tani

Piano
NZ

Hana Tani is a third-year student at the University of Auckland, studying towards a Bachelor of Music in Classical Piano Performance under Stephen De Pledge. This year she received the Haydn Staples Scholarship. A competition prizewinner from an early age, Hana has performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Auckland Philharmonia at the Auckland Town Hall, and has worked in masterclasses with Michael Houstoun, Benjamin Grosvenor, and Eva Gevorgyan.

  • Alongside her solo work, Hana studies harpsichord and has been recognised for her early keyboard playing with the Anna Nathan Scholarship for Early Keyboard. She has participated in the Douglas Lilburn Competition, where her ensemble received the Best Performance Prize.

    Hana brings a strong commitment to chamber music and to music in the community — she has given numerous solo recitals at retirement villages across Auckland, and speaks warmly about the connections live performance can make. She looks forward to bringing that same energy to AWE Festival audiences in Central Otago.

AWE Emerging
Composer
Mentorship

With New Zealand music woven into the very seams of the AWE Festival, each year one young composer is selected through a nationwide competition to receive personalised mentoring for the AWE Festival. During this time, our Emerging Composer creates a new work for premiere within the festival.

The 2026 Emerging Composer receives five months of personalised composition mentoring from Michael Norris, this year’s Composer in Residence, to write a short chamber work for premiere within the AWE Festival. This composition will also be performed in schools throughout the Central Lakes region.

The young composer will take up residence at AWE during the festival weeks, attending performances, working with the musicians performing their new piece, and personally introducing the work within the performances.

2026 Emerging Composer

Black and white photo of person

Rafael Hosking

Emerging Composer, AWE 2026
NZ

Rafael Hosking is a Wellington-based composer, guitarist, and producer. He has studied composition at the University of Auckland with Leonie Holmes and Chris Gendall, and at Victoria University of Wellington with Michael Norris, Salina Fisher, and David Long. In 2025 he won the overall prize at the NZSO Todd Young Composer Awards, having also been a finalist the previous year, and his works have been performed by NZTrio, the NZSO, and Antipodes Quartet.

  • Rafael was a finalist in the Lilburn Competition in both 2023 and 2024, and his compositions span the concert hall and screen — he has produced works for short film and other visual media alongside his instrumental writing. As a guitarist, he has performed with the New Zealand Youth Choir, Te Kōkī Big Band, and Slow Jazz Ensemble, and plays regularly across Wellington with a range of groups.

    For AWE Festival 2026, Rafael is working with mentor Michael Norris on a new string quartet to be premiered across school and public performances in October. The work draws on field recordings of riroriro (grey warbler) calls gathered from across Aotearoa, fragmenting, extending, and reimagining the melodies he has transcribed. It sits within a rich tradition of New Zealand composers engaging with birdsong, and makes full use of the string quartet's lyricism and capacity for microtonal writing.

Thank you to the Nicholas Tarling Trust for their financial support towards the Emerging Composer Mentorship and to SOUNZ Centre for NZ Music for their selection administration support.

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