Shoalhaven musicians to feature in Steel City Strings' biennial Celebration of Youth concert

Three concerts will be held across the region between June 20-27, including a stop in Nowra (Sunday, June 27) at the Nowra School of Arts.

The concert will be between 2pm and 4pm.

A movement of the teenage Mozart's Turkish-inspired A major violin concerto will be performed by Hana Lee, recent winner of the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music Concerto Competition while Tomas Phillips will play a movement from Mozart's achingly beautiful clarinet concerto.

Artistic Director, Kyle Little will be joined by violinist Elliot Winn in a Vivaldi duet - a composer who spent many hours training young musicians - while vocalist Daisy Pring (featured artist in the NSW Schools Spectacular) brings her contemporary style to the program with special arrangements prepared by Wollongong Conservatorium Composer in Residence, John Spence.

The concerts generously nurtures the ongoing development of performers and composers across the region and is supported by Create NSW.

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Two Shoalhaven-based musicians will feature in the orchestra.

Bomaderry's Jacob Antonio is principal violin and Sanctuary Point's Karella Mitchell is principal cello.

Jacob first began to play music when he was four-years-old, learning to play the piano from a lady who lived down the street.

Once he started learning to play the violin at age nine however, he realised that the violin was his preferred instrument.

From then on he pursued this passion, playing in community youth orchestras and major music camps before leaving school and moving on to study a Bachelor of Music (Music Education) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Since completing this degree in 2011, Jacob has been teaching strings and running string programs and ensembles at several different primary and high schools in the Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands.

Music is not Jacob's only passion however.

He has also been a pilot since 2012 and is a member of the Australian Aerobatic Club and regularly competes in nation wide aerobatic competitions.

Karella began the violin at 18 months of age when she dragged her mother's violin off the dining room table to play.

Karella moved to cello, learning with Dorothy Sumner, when she was seven-years-old after hearing Jacqueline du Pre playing on the radio.

She just knew cello was her instrument.

Completing a Bachelor of Music at the Conservatorium of Sydney studying with Georg Pedersen, she went on to graduate with Honours from the Conservatorium of Newcastle where she was the cellist for the Conservatorium String quartet.

Karella also holds a post-graduate Diploma in Music Performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Having studied with esteemed teachers as George Pedersen, Anthea Scott-Mitchell, Dorothy Sumner and Tim Blomfield she appreciated, assimilated and developed both as a cellist and teacher from each experience.

Karella has had the privilege of playing in orchestras conducted by Richard Gill, John Harding, Steven Hillinger, Professor Wolfram Christ, Simon Kenway, Denis de Coteau and Larry Rachliff.

A unique feature of the concert series is its Youth Composition Competition which was open to Australia composers 25 and under.

The successful submission, 'Recovery' by 17-year-old Western Sydney composer Adriel Sukumar earned him the $1000 cash prize and the opportunity to have his work performed by Steel City Strings in three concerts across Wollongong, Nowra, and Burradoo.

Sukumar said his composition consists of two parts.

"The first is an introduction bearing the sense of unease in the aftermath of disaster," he said.

"The second part accelerates to a faster tempo where it is bursting with energy and new life.

"I realised how relevant recovery was to us even now, from the pandemic that still affects the world.

"This inspired me to write 'Recovery', hoping that it would be able to remind us that there is always hope for things to get better."

Artistic director, Kyle Little said it is pleasing to see such promising young performers featured in this year's program.

"We look forward to including young artists in much of our future programming to provide performance and development opportunities for our emerging artists," she said.

Shilong Ye features in this program as Guest Conductor.

Other Steel City Strings "Celebration of Youth" performances will be undertaken at Chevalier Performing Arts Centre (Sunday, June 20 2-4pm) and Wollongong Town Hall (Saturday, June 26 from 7.30pm).

Bookings via www.SteelCityStrings.com.au and Wollongong Town Hall Box Office: 4224 5999.