Former WollCon student in concert at the Art Gallery.
On October 18th Anna da Silva Chen will return to Wollongong with the Alma Moodie Quartet of which she was a founding member. It is now one of Australia’s leading quartets represented by Emblem Artists. Their concert in the Wollongong Art Gallery is part of the Illawarra Festival of Architecture and Design.
Anna has also been appointed to a permanent position with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. It’s a long way from when she started her musical journey with Janet Andrews and the ChiME program.
Q: Growing up in Wollongong, what first drew you to the violin? What were some of your early memories of making music and performing in Wollongong?
A: “By far the most vivid musical memories I have from Wollongong are from the conservatorium’s ChiME Early Childhood Music Education lessons. Led by the effulgent Janet Andrews, they are group classes which essentially merge methods of music education established by Kodály, Dalcroze and Suzuki with an emphasis on enjoyment and freedom of expression.”
“I was around 7 years old and always so excited to spend time with other kids singing and moving my body to folk tunes. Janet’s approach and love for music was so pure and unambitious that you couldn’t help but fall in love with it in the same way. I didn’t know just how privileged I was to be exposed to this until much later on in my career, when I was struggling with debilitating stage fright due to external pressures from parents and teachers, but I always loved practising on my own and never questioned whether I would give up the pursuit of music as a way of life.”
From an article by Inspire Music Australia written for the Illawarra Flame.
