Violinist Emily Su has taken out the overall prize at this year’s Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Concerto Competition. The 15-year-old Kambala Girls School student received $5,000 and will be engaged for a performance with the orchestra in its 2019 season following her performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with KPO under the baton of Paul Terracini at The Concourse, Chatswood, on the weekend.

Emily Su. Photo © Christopher Hayles

Cellist Lily Dai took out the Barbara Robinson Award for her performance of the Lalo Cello Concerto, while violist Daniel Lin won the Barbara Cran Award with the Walton Concerto. Violinist Sarah Chang won the KPO Players’ Award for her performance of Paganini’s First Violin Concerto.

Previous award winners of the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Concerto Competition include violinist Grace Clifford and Anna Da Silva Chen, cellist Benett Tsai, and pianist Simon Tedeschi, who was the junior winner in 1994.

“Performing in the finals concert of this competition is an experience many young Australian music students dream of,” Su told Limelight. “I have always aspired to one day perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto, and it was almost surreal preparing to not only perform my favourite...