On Saturday night, Year 12 student Holly Shelton performed violin in Melbourne, in the Grand Finals of the National chamber music competition by Musica Viva called ‘Strike a Chord’. At the end of this amazing competition which lasted well over 4 hours, Holly’s first ensemble ‘Take 6’ were awarded 2nd Place and the Paul Morawetz Prize of $4000. Her second ensemble was awarded the prestigious Firebird Trio Mentorship Prize which will see Holly travelling to Melbourne again in the coming month to begin mentoring sessions with world-class professionals.
Since 2023, Holly has regularly been travelling to the University of Queensland in Brisbane to participate in the very selective ‘UQ Chamber Music Academy’. Our secondary strings students and staff were fortunate to attend one of Holly’s performances at UQ earlier this year, and were inspired by the standard Holly displayed. The Strike a Chord competition was entered by ensembles across Australia, and the final has been a highly celebrated and widely discussed event in the classical music space.
We are proud to have an Instrumental Music program at Varsity College which attracts and can support students who excel in performance, such as Holly. We have proudly watched Holly achieve through increasingly outstanding opportunities and platforms throughout her schooling, and we wish to congratulate her on this particularly remarkable achievement which will position her very well, moving beyond Year 12. An enormous amount of work has gone into this achievement.
Congratulations Holly!
