JONATHAN MUI (winner)
Jonathan Mui was born in Hong Kong in 1991 and started playing the violin at the age of five. He moved to Sydney in 2002 where he continued his studies with the world-renowned pedagogue Prof. Shi-xiang (Peter) Zhang.

In June 2006, Jonathan won the Outstanding Performer Award in the Ku-Ring-Gai Concerto Competition, an event organised annually by the Ku-Ring-Gai Philharmonic, one of Australia’s leading community orchestras. In September 2007, Jonathan was the first prize winner of the Kendall National Violin Competition (Aus), and was also the inaugural recipient of their Travel Scholarship. In October of the same year, he performed with the Queensland Youth Orchestra, and was a joint winner of the National Youth Concerto Competition 2007, held in Brisbane. As a recipient of the Travel Scholarship, he travelled to London in December 2007 for private tuition with Prof. Kun Hu, a distinguished Chinese violinist and currently a member of the Royal Academy of Music faculty. Jonathan completed a recital tour in February 2008 as the winner of the Kendall Competition, performing in Mosman (Sydney), Nambucca Heads and Kendall.

Jonathan entered the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in February 2010, where he currently studies with internationally-acclaimed Norwegian violinist and pedagogue, Prof. Ole Böhn. Jonathan appears frequently as a member of the Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra – a recent highlight was the joint concert in October 2010 with the Juilliard School, New York. Most recently, in December 2010, Jonathan won first prize at the Gisborne International Competition (NZ), and was a joint winner of the Prize for the Best Interpretation of a New Zealand Composition. In January 2011, he was invited back to New Zealand to perform at the Australian High Commission in Wellington.

In June 2011, Jonathan was selected to participate in the inaugural Lausanne Summer University, an intensive chamber music course bringing together five leading music institutions from around the world: Sydney & Singapore Conservatories, Guildhall School (London), Peabody Institute (Baltimore), HEMU (Lausanne). In July, Jonathan performed string quartet and solo recitals at the Vigeland Summer Concert series in Oslo, Norway, and also appeared as a guest artist at the celebration concerts for the 102nd anniversary of the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro.
August 2011

DORETTA BALKIZAS
Doretta was only 10 years old in 2001 when she was won a $1000 scholarship competing against open aged violinists and adjudicated by the English violinist, Robert Masters. She has been a finalist in several violin competitions and invited to participate in a recital programme as part of the Australian National Youth Orchestra competition. She performed the 2nd movement of the Brahms Violin Concerto in the Sydney Opera House concert hall.

Just after 2007 KNVC finals Doretta travelled to Europe (Vienna, Budapest, Prague & France) to perform in a series of concerts with the MLC Chamber orchestra and choir. She had master-classes in the Konservatorium Wien (in Vienna) and in the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. She performed the second movement of the Ross Edwards Violin Concerto, accompanied by the MLC Chamber Orchestra. She also performed the Sarabande from Partita no.2 by J.S Bachs' Sonatas & Partitas. In 2007 Doretta was the Concertmaster of the MLC Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra and featured in the documentary film “Mrs Carey’s Concert.”

In 2009, Doretta was accepted into the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as a Bachelor of Music (Performance) student.  Doretta's busy musical schedule was painfully interrupted by a 2-year battle with tendonitis. Thanks to her tenacity and her co-operation with her teacher, Alice Waten, her recovery progressed.

In 2011 Doretta performed as Principle violinist of the newly formed Sydney Chamber Opera Company performing an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s ‘Notes from the Underground’, a contemporary work written by the Sydney composer Jack Symonds, which was featured on ABC Classic FM.

She toured Europe with a Clarinet, Piano and Violin Trio performing Brahms ‘D minor Violin Sonata’, Stravinsky ‘Soldiers Tale’ and Alexander Aratiunian ‘Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano’.
Doretta is a violinist with the newly formed Sydney Chamber Opera performing Janacek ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’.

She is also taking part in a new music project – “Cockatoo Calling - which is a creative development and residency space for music, rather like a research and development hub dedicated to Australian musicians and composers. It aims to inspire, create new opportunities for collaborations, skills development and presentation”.
August 2011

ALICE HIGGINS
Alice’s love of the stage began in the family living room, where she performed regularly for her parents alongside her two sisters as part of A.S.K (Alice, Sophie, Katie) Productions. Initially she was a pianist, singer and dancer, but at the age of seven took up her preferred instrument, the violin.

In the following years, Alice discovered that her love of performing was attracting a keen audience. At thirteen, she joined SBS (Special Broadcasting Service, Sydney) Youth Orchestra, and toured extensively with them to Japan, Estonia, Finland, Russia and Italy. At sixteen and seventeen respectively, she completed her Associate of Music and Licentiate of Music.

Alice entered the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney in 2003, having been awarded a scholarship. Whilst there she studied with Alex Todicescu and Wanda Wilkomirska, and completed her degree with First Class Honours in 2006. The following year she was broadcast live as a soloist on 2MBSfm and was a finalist in the Kendall National Violin Competition. As a result of this performance she was invited to perform with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

In 2007, Alice began her Masters with Magdalena Rezler in Freiburg, Germany, where she was awarded the Baden Wuerttemburg and the Vasanta Scholarship. Whilst in Germany, Alice spent most of her time in windowless practice rooms perfecting her technique, alongside performing numerous concerts around South West Germany and the neighbouring Alsace region, both as a soloist, and as part of the Freiburg Hochschule Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.

In addition to her passion for performing, Alice is also a keen music educator, and whilst in Australia was an enthusiastic organiser of several school music programmes. On completion of her Masters degree, and having been awarded a place in Southbank Sinfonia, Alice was able to spend several months at home in Australia where she was thrilled to discover that her nieces and nephews were already creating their own version of the A.S.K series, of which Alice was most pleased to be the guest artistic director.
August 2011

SONJA SCHEBECK

Sonja was born in Sydney, Australia in 1985 and is of Russian/Polish/Austrian heritage. She became entranced by the violin at age 3 after attending a baby prom by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and began studying the Suzuki method with Barbara Hayward. In 2009, she completed her Bachelor of Music (Performance) with first-class Honours from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying with Christopher Kimber and was the recipient of a University Postgraduate Award. She is currently undertaking the Masters program at the Konservatorium Wien (with the assistance of the Sydney University George & Margaret Henderson Postgraduate Scholarship), studying with Professor Florian Zwiauer. (1st Konzertmeister, Wiener Symphoniker).

Sonja has been fortunate to work in a variety of genres with artists including composer Chloé Charody, classical/theatre collective Ilythian, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Sinfonia, Sydney Scoring Orchestra (most memorably on Baz Luhrman’s ‘Australia’), Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Palace Gate Orchestra (concertmaster), Sydney Camerata, film director Jane Campion and composer Mark Bradshaw (soundtrack for ‘Bright Star’), pop/rock band Saving Grace, The Eastern Bloc folk string quartet, experimental band Wicked Miranda, Australian hip-hop group Mind Over Matter, balkan ensemble The Yellow Quinces and musical circus-stunt group Strings on Fire.

In 2010, Sonja was privileged to have played with Nigel Kennedy during his Australian concert tour and since April 2010 has been a member of Nigel Kennedy’s Orchestra of Life, performing concerts in the UK, Wales, Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland and Austria. She has performed as co-soloist with Mr Kennedy in Double Violin Concertos by Bach and Vivaldi and at festivals and concerts with the Nigel Kennedy Quintet.

Personal performance highlights include the 2008 Adelaide Fringe Festival, the 2008 Beijing Musicathlon pre-Olympics cultural festival (representing the Sydney Conservatorium), acting as assistant concertmaster for the Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra’s 2009 Europe tour, performances with Nigel Kennedy and the Orchestra of Life at Royal Albert Hall, Henley Festival and Latitude Festival (UK), Berlin Philharmonie (Germany) and with the Nigel Kennedy Quintet at Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany) and Przystanek Woodstock (Poland) 2010 and most recently at Porgy & Bess Jazz Club, Vienna in 2011.

Sonja has been a prize-winner at the Gisborne International Music Competition, Balmain Sinfonia Concerto Competition, Kendall National Violin Competition, Marcus Edwards Violin Prize, and Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition, a finalist in the Musica Viva Chamber Music Awards and Nelson Meers Outstanding Instrumentalist Awards and a String finalist in the 2010 Symphony Australia ABC Young Performer of the Year awards. She has participated in masterclass lessons with Perry Hart, Jiří Zigmund, Simon Fischer, Pekka Kuusisto, Arabella Steinbacher and David Takeno.

Coming from a diverse musical background incuding folk and jazz, Sonja has also performed with various groups on guitar, double bass, piano and percussion. She has worked as editor and writer for MusiqueArt Magazine, Sydney’s only street press for the fine arts, is the co-founder of ‘Reachout’ (a touring education program designed to bring the classical music of today to the youth of Australia, particularly those living in regional and remote areas) and is a board member at Charody Productions. She also has a special interest in new music, twentieth-century Russian music (particularly that of Sergei Prokofiev) and in the circus arts of fire-eating and fire-breathing.

In 2011 Sonja will appear as violinist in the circus-opera “The Carnival” (premiered London, February 2011) and as guest violinist with the Dutch National Ballet as solo violinist the opera-ballet “Magdalene” composed by Chloé Charody, choreographed by Remi Wortmeyer, with libretto by Malcolm Rock (premiered Amsterdam, March 2011), as well as further tours with Nigel Kennedy's Orchestra of Life and the Nigel Kennedy Band.
 August 2011