The Croser-Hughes award is an annual competition for the performance of Chamber Music with keyboard. The competition was started over 20 years ago by two former piano tutors to encourage students to explore the vast range of interesting chamber music that is available.

The competition is held at the University of Surrey earlier in the week. This is always a highly-charged event, as a guest adjudicator is invited to have the final say and make the Award. The repertoire is really varied and excellent performances make judging a winner very difficult.

We present the winners and highly commended from the competition.

Keeping up its high standards, the University of Surrey's concert featured two movements from Beethoven's Piano Quartet op.16 and a Romanza & Rondo from the Mozart Tuba Concerto KV495 with the piano arrangement being played by a staff member. Very accomplished tuba playing was provided by a student who also wrote the cadenza for the Rondo's last movement.

Unusually, solo pianists provided two brilliant interludes, the first, with Hayden's allegro from Sonata Hob.XVI/50 and the harmonically captivating Berg Sonata op.1 written in 1910. The second pianist also chose Mozart - the well known Rondo K485 and an enchanting performance of Poulenc's "Trois Pieces", Pastorale, Hymne & Toccata written in 1928.

Finally a remarkable jazz ensemble with piano, bass & drums rounded off the concert with a rendering of Joseph Kosma's arrangement of "Autumn Leaves" written in 1945 and "Tico-tico no fuba" written in 1917. Here, the pianist's natural abilities were so outstanding that he probably contributed in no small way to this group being declared the Competition winners.

P.B.