Royal College of Music Award 2019

Amy Huang

Recently, I have played in some orchestral projects within and outside of college (e.g. the Hornton Chamber Orchestra). My favourite was probably playing Strauss this term in the RCM Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski (principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra). Accompanying concertos played by some of the older RCM students in the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra was also very inspiring. My teacher held private termly class concerts, in which I performed, and I also recorded a transcription of Ravel's Sonatine for another student's final assessment.

As part of my course, I also had the opportunity to lead a music education workshop at a primary school with 2 fellow classmates. We played some musical imitation games and created a couple of compositions in groups. As I have extremely little teaching experience, I found this to be so rewarding. It is so fulfilling to see the joy that music can bring others - young children are so enthusiastic and creative. This is a dimension of my art that I definitely wish to explore further.

I was also lucky enough to work with Brompton's auction house (which specialises in musical instruments). I helped to transport, unpack and watch over the string instruments while people came into the viewing hall and inspected/played them. It was tiring but enjoyable to listen and help people. The best thing was that I even got to try some of the violins and bows myself, and because of this I got to play for some of the viewers who could not play/wished to listen to the sounds of the instruments from a further distance. I have only done this once so far, but have been asked to help with similar events in the future.

I am also very happy to say that I have been selected to play in the finals of the Australian Music Foundation (which supplies funds for Australian music students studying abroad) at the Royal Academy of Music in October. I have also applied for the Tait Memorial Trust Award again, and should find out results soon.

I've just returned to Australia and am currently working on my new repertoire for the holidays. In August I will be attending the New Virtuosi mastercourse in Trieste, Italy - my teacher has given me several new pieces that I'm really excited to start working on. Other plans I have at the moment are to record these new pieces before I return to London in September (to use for applications to other music festivals and courses overseas). I have also found a string quartet to play with (hopefully long-term). This is very important to me as I do not have so much experience playing music in small ensembles, which requires a strong ability to cooperate and communicate musical intention with the other musicians.

I would just like to thank you and all the Knights for the fantastic performance opportunities and generosity. I have learnt so much about music, my playing and myself this year and am so glad to be studying with my teacher at the Royal College of Music. Your sponsorship made an incredible difference and I cannot thank you enough. It is wonderful that you take such an interest in so many different fields and make it possible for foreign students like me to study in London. I really believe that a change of environment is one of the most powerful and crucial tools for development.