Young Performers Awards
2.00pm, September 3 2011
QPAC Concert Hall
Conductor Edvard
Tchivzhel
Piano Nicholas Young
Saxaphone Nicholas Russoniello
Violin Emily Sun
About
For the past 67 years, the ABC Symphony Australia Young performers Awards has provided aspiring young musicians the opportunity to perform with Australia's major orchestras in a quest to be named ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year. The competition has been an important launch-pad for many successful music careers, unearthing talents such as Simon Tedeschi, Diana Doherty, Adele Anthony, Roger Woodward and Ian Munro.
2011 Grand Finalists
Emily Sun (NSW)
Violin
Emily Sun began playing the violin at the age of five under the tutelage of her late father, Australian composer Daniel Yi Sun. She attained her AMusA in piano at the age of 13 and LMusA in violin at 14. She was awarded a full music scholarship at MLC School, and also held a full scholarship at the Sydney Conservatorium Open Academy. She is currently in her second year of a Bachelor of Music Performance (Hons) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a full merit scholarship, studying with Robin Wilson.
Emily made her debut with the East-West Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of ten, and has since been a guest soloist with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Queensland Youth Orchestra, Balmain Sinfonia and the Ku-Ring-Gai Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a featured soloist in venues such as the Sydney Opera House and the Adelaide Festival Theatre. Her many awards include the Australian National Youth Concerto Competition, Perry Hart Memorial Prize and the Marcus Edwards Violin Prize, and she was a finalist in the Nelson Meers Foundation Outstanding Instrumentalist Awards.
In 2007 Emily toured with the MLC School Chamber Orchestra to Europe where her composition Chaconne, written for two violins and string orchestra, was first performed in Prague. She has also toured with Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra to Germany, New York, San Francisco and Colorado.
Emily and her performance of the Bruch Violin Concerto at the Sydney Opera House is prominently featured in the documentary film Mrs Carey's Concert, which premiered at the 2011 Adelaide Film Festival.
Nicholas Russoniello (NSW)
Saxophone
Nicholas Russoniello's studies in saxophone began at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Performance) with first class honours. As a student of the Conservatorium, he received a number of awards and scholarships which allowed him to pursue international study. In 2004 and 2006 he attended the European Summer Saxophone University in Gap, France, and in 2007 was awarded a BBM scholarship to travel to London and Paris for lessons with teachers including Marie-Bernadette Charrier, John Harle, Jean-Denis Michat and Christian Wirth. In 2010 he completed his postgraduate diploma at the Milan Conservatory, where he studied with Marco Bontempo and Mario Marzi.
Originally from Wollongong, Nicholas has performed in various settings in Australia and abroad. In 2010, as a member of the New Reed Quartet, he performed as a soloist with the Orchestra Dell'Accademia Musicale di Schio, Vicenza. He has performed throughout Italy with the Syrinx Quartet, including for the Società Dei Concerti Milan. In 2009 the Syrinx Quartet won the Milan Conservatory's Ferrero Chamber Music Competition.
In Sydney, Nicholas performs regularly in the ensemble Duo Histoire with guitarist Murilo Tanouye, giving concerts throughout Australia. Duo Histoire's self-titled debut recording (2008) has been played on radio stations throughout Australia, including ABC Classic FM and 2MBS-FM.
In 2011 Nicholas became a member of the saxophone quartet Continuum Sax, with whom he will perform at the Melbourne International Festival of Single Reeds and for the Australian New Music Network.
Nicholas Young (NSW)
Piano
Nicholas Young is a third-year student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music studying towards a Bachelor of Music (Performance). He began piano studies at the age of six with Alison Salkeld and has continued with Daniel Herscovitch. He has been awarded his AMusA, LMusA and FMusA.
Nicholas is a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Scholarship, James Aitken Scholarship, South Sydney Rotary Club 'Felix Switzer' Memorial Award and Academic Merit Prize of the University of Sydney. He was winner of the Yamaha Australian Youth Piano Competition in 2007, a keyboard finalist in the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards in 2007 and 2009, a state finalist in the 2008 2MBS-FM Young Performers Award, and a prize-winner in the Laurence Godfrey-Smith/Rex Hobcroft Award of the Federated Music Clubs of Australia in 2009. He was recognised as a Young Steinway Artist in 2009, and has won awards in Eisteddfods in Hawkesbury, McDonald's Sydney, Northern Beaches, Parramatta, Penrith, Ryde, St. George, Sydney Conservatorium Open Academy and the United Music Teachers of New South Wales.
Nicholas has given solo recitals in Australia and New Zealand, and performances in The Australiana Fundraising Event, Ladies' Committee of the Sydney Opera House Appeal Fund. He has performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No.11 with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, Paderewski's Piano Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.5 with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Nicholas has also been involved in chamber music and ensemble performances at the Sydney Conservatorium and in the 2010 Australian Youth Orchestra Chamber Music Camp where he performed as part of the public concert series held in Newcastle. He has been chosen to participate in the 2011 Piano! Festival at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne.
Please click here to find out more.
