YOUNG VIRTUOSO AWARD 2018

The 2018 National Final of the Young Virtuoso Award was held on Sunday 25 November
at the 4MBS Performance Studio, Coorparoo
​Meet the finalists who competed . . .
ANNA STEPHENS
​(NSW)

Representing Fine Music and NSW was soprano Anna Stephens.
 
22 year old Anna Stephens graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music with first-class honours and a university medal in 2017. Anna was the recipient of the Elizabeth Muir prize for the highest recital mark of her cohort in her first year at the Conservatorium, and since then has played the roles of Amor (The Coronation of Poppea), Papagena/Pamina/Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), Emmie (Albert Herring), Princess Laoula (L’Etoile), The Storybook Princess (L’Enfant et les Sortileges), and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro).
 
In 2017, Anna undertook 6 months of study on exchange at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama, under the tutelage of Susan Waters. Anna now performs regularly with a variety of orchestras, including the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Youth Orchestras, Camerata of St Johns, Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra, and is also a soloist with Underground Opera Company, Vavachi Entertainment, and The 7 Sopranos, who recently toured to Abu Dhabi.
 
Anna was awarded the audience vote prize in the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera & Arts Support Group Scholarship in 2017 and was a reserve finalist in the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship in 2018.
Anna has spent the last 8 months touring with Opera Australia’s 2018 Schools production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. 
WILLIAM HARDY
​(VIC)

​Representing 3MBS and VIC was recorder player William Hardy.
 
William Hardy is a well-established, multi-talented Melbourne performer. Will was invited to play as a soloist with the Bayside Chamber Orchestra and Melbourne Mandolin Orchestra (2016), and as a guest artist with the Recorder Co-op (2018). He featured in the Arden Street 2017-18 ‘Rising Stars’ and ‘Rising Stars – a year on’ concerts, as well as performing in Stage School Australia's 2018 production "Wicked".
 
A Year 12 student at McKinnon Secondary College, Will studies recorder with Ruth Wilkinson, playing sopranino to bass recorders. He also sings, acts, and plays flute and tenor saxophone. Will is the 2018 winner of the Musical Society of Victoria’s Hephzibah Menuhin Award for Winds and the 3MBS Freemasons Victoria Young Performer Award. In 2015, Will was awarded his Licentiate Diploma of Music, Australia (with Distinction) in Recorder. The following year, Will won the 2016 International Don Cowell Memorial Trust Solo Recorder competition (Under 18 and Open sections).
 
Will has eclectic musical tastes, and he loves to play, entertain and share his joy in music.
NINA FAN
(QLD)
​THE WINNER
​Representing 4MBS and QLD was pianist Nina Fan.
 
17 year old pianist Nina Fan is a recent year 12 graduate from All Saints Anglican School. She began learning piano at the age of seven. Aged just thirteen she was a selected student to participate at the Griffith Young Conservatorium’s “Rising Stars & Senior Piano Program” where she studies with renowned pianist Natasha Vlassenko and assistant teacher Aaron Liu; her piano studies have been sponsored by the Gif Fund - Friends of GC Arts Centre since 2016.
 
Nina has achieved many successes in piano that include winning the Brisbane Eisteddfod - 4MBS Classic FM 103.7 Piano Award, and she was one of the Top 20 finalists of the 2017 Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition. Her performing experience as a soloist with orchestra includes the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 KV 488, the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 and Hummel Piano Concerto No. 2 with her school orchestra, as well as the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 - 1st Movement with the GC Philharmonic Orchestra and Griffith Young Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra. Her notable performance was being chosen to perform as part of the Australian Showcase at the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition where her performance was broadcast live throughout Australia on ABC Classic FM. 
VICTORIA COXHILL
(SA)
​
​Representing 5MBS and SA was soprano Victoria Coxhill.
 
Victoria is a lyric soprano from Adelaide, and has been active as a solo and ensemble singer over the past 10 years, graduating from the Elder Conservatorium with First Class Honours in 2013. She is a 2018 Emerging Artist with the State Opera of South Australia and a member of the Chorus. She has performed a number of roles with touring company Co-Opera, including as Mimì (La Bohème), Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito), Countess Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro), and Despina (Così Fan Tutte).  Other roles include the title role of La Périchole, Margot (The Desert Song), Mother (Hansel and Gretel), First Lady (The Magic Flute), and Lady Psyche (Princess Ida).
 
In concert Victoria has sung as a soloist for Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem and Stabat Mater by Pergolesi. Victoria is also a core member of the acclaimed Adelaide Chamber Singers and has toured internationally with them twice, including winning “Choir of the World” in Wales in 2013. She is a committee member for the SA Branch of the Australian National Choral Association and works as a secondary school music and drama teacher.
MIA HUANG
(ACT)
​
​Representing ​ArtSound FM and ACT was pianist Mia Huang.
 
Mia Huang is a fourth-year ANU music student majoring in piano performance. Having begun her piano lessons at the age of 4 in Beijing, she studied with Joan Breen upon moving to Canberra and is now under the tutelage of Wendy Lorenz. Mia has enjoyed giving solo as well as chamber music performances in various concert venues, some of which have been recorded by ArtSound FM. She has performed numerous recitals at the Wesley Music Centre, where she has been supported by the Wesley Music Foundation scholarship since 2015. At the ANU, Mia was the recipient of the Margaret Smiles Accompaniment Prize (2016) and the Winifred Burston Memorial Prize (2017). In 2018, She was the winner of the Open Piano Recital section of the Australian National Eisteddfod, and was recently awarded joint first prize and people’s choice prize at the ANU Whitworth Roach Classical Music Competition. The process of digging deep into a piece of music and discovering beautiful moments along the way gives her immense joy, and she longs to share those moments with people around her.