Three Auckland ensembles, two Christchurch groups and a violin quartet from Wellington have been named the top six young chamber ensembles to go through to the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest National Final to be held in Auckland tomorrow.

The finalists include last year's winning group, Auckland string quartet Geist. The other five finalists are, from Auckland - Mentalstorm and Ararat; from Christchurch, Trio Poeme and All'Aperto; and from Wellington, Bacewicz Quartet.

The finalists compete at Auckland Town Hall tomorrow night from 7pm with the winners announced at the end. This year's adjudicators are the NZTrio. Pianist Sarah Watkins said today had been "a wonderful day of incredible music making and it is astonishing to see the level of playing given the difficulty of repertoire being presented".

The National Final will also include a performance of the winning senior composition section - Hastings student Marcus Jackson's While Dreamscapes Stagnate, a chamber piece written for flute, violin, cello and piano. The New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest is run by Chamber Music New Zealand and celebrates its 47th anniversary this year. The 2012 contest has involved more than 1850 students from around the country. It is the longest running youth music competition in New Zealand and is the only nationwide chamber music competition for young musicians and composers.

The national contest is well-known for nurturing young musicians who go on to successful musical careers - iconic New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun competed in the event when he was a school student, and more recently, acclaimed pianist John Chen was a past winner and went on to win the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition and the 2003 Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition.

The New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest National Final on Saturday 4 August at 7pm at Auckland Town Hall. Tickets are available from 0800 BUY TICKETS (289 842) or <a href="http://www.buytickets.co.nz">www.buytickets.co.nz</a> The event is free for Chamber Music New Zealand subscribers.

In presenting the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest, Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges the generous support of The New Zealand Community Trust, ABRSM, SOUNZ (Centre for NZ Music), The Wallace Arts Trust, KBB Music and various regional funders who supported events at district contests.