PhD candidate awarded prestigious music fellowship

PhD Candidate Laura van Rijn, from the School of Music, has been awarded the 2013 Sydney Symphony Fellowship.

The Fellowship aims to develop a new generation of musicians capable of filling some of Australia’s most prestigious orchestral chairs.

The Fellowship is Australia’s leading vocational training program for orchestral technique, musicianship and chamber music. It is revered throughout the world for the opportunities it offers as well as the professional rigor it encourages.

Laura is completing her doctorate in music performance at the School of Music, which includes studying with Virginia Taylor and Vernon Hill.

She previously completed a Bachelor of Music degree with first class honours at the University of Western Australia and holds a master’s degree from the Australian National University. In 2011 Laura won the Australian International Flute Festival Competition.

She has performed with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Canberra International Music Festival Orchestra, Llewellyn Choir Orchestra and Australian Youth Orchestra, and was Principal Flute with the Western Australian Youth Orchestra.

Laura has studied in England at the Oxford and Woldingham flute summer schools and participated in master classes with Michael Cox, Ian Clarke, Paul Edmund-Davies, Peter Lloyd, Felix Renggli and Wendy Quinlan.