Profile:Christine Wickham

Born on July 29, 1992, Christine is a young Australian musician and composer. She is the eldest of three daughters, only two of which are musically inclined.

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Musical life

Christine began the study of music at the tender age of five when her parents decided that she should learn the piano. She was to be taught by a local piano teacher of some experience but it was found in reality that the teacher only taught group classes and her private students were tutored by conservatorium students. A few years later she began studying under another pianist with a better reputation for teaching. Although not greatly talented, she continued to learn and still does today.

At the age of eight, she underwent aural testing to evaluate her eligibility to participate in the state primary schools strings program in order to learn a stringed instrument. She then went home and begged her mother to let her learn the violin. He mother, knowing what a terrible noise an untrained violinist would wreck upon the household, insisted instead that she take up the cello.

On the first night she had the government loaned instrument, she sat down and taught herself to play 'twinkle twinkle little star'. When group lessons began she was dismayed to find that the first few months would be spent learning to read music. A few years later the local teacher retired and a young violinist took over. This was to be quite detrimental to her technique as was discovered later.

In high school she continued to learn with a school based tutor until grade nine when she won a state scholarship grant, one of twelve awarded that year. She then began her tutelage under the most sought after cello teacher in the state. Her lessons began and she had to relearn much of her technique but quickly progressed and took the grade five examinations by the end of the year.

She played in the senior high school orchestra and rose to the position of principal cellist by her second year. It was also in this year that she was invited to join the TYO, the state youth orchestra.

By the time she was fifteen, her piano teacher had stopped focusing on technique and more on expression as it had been decided that, although she would never be a concert pianist, her playing had become very expressive and musical. She has been recognized as gifted in aural related exercises.

After being convinced by a friend to sing at a local jazz night, her parents decided that she should have lessons. She then began learning under renowned opera singer Sharon Prero.

Christine focuses on the styles of the baroque and romantic eras.

Composition

She first wrote a piece for composition class in ninth grade, a piano piece that she now deems "too immature" to be considered a real work. The next year she was set the task of writing for voice and accompaniment. She then wrote a Requiem for Soprano and String Orchestra for which she received that highest mark in the state. The work will be performed by the TYO in their first season concert.

This year she elected to take the composition elective in pre-tertiary music which requires her to produce a folio of ten-fifteen minutes and must contain at least three pieces.

Instruments

- Piano (11 years)

- Cello (8 years)

- Opera - Soprano (6 months)

Current Repertoire

Piano

Beethoven - Sonata 14 (First and second movements)

Erik Satie - Gnossiennes 1 & 2

Chopin - Nocturne No. 1 in B-flat minor

Cello

Bartok - Romanian Dances 1 & 4

Mendelssohn - Lied ohne Worte (Song without words)

Vivaldi - Sonata 3 in A minor

Voice

Caccini - Amarilli, mia bello

Caldare - Alma del core

Dream Pieces

Piano

Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1

Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto No. 2

Cello

Saint-Saens - Allegro Appassionata

Elgar - Cello Concerto in E minor

Saint-Saens - Concerto No.1

Shostokovitch - Concerto No.2

Dvorak - Concerto No.1

Voice

Bizet - Carmen (Carmen)

Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia)

Webber - Phantom of the opera (Christine)