Isabelle still hungry after winning comp
Junior talent takes out top piano prize
EVEN after she swept the field in the region’s only junior piano competition, 10-year-old Isabelle Tay had only one thing on her mind.
“I think I can improve more for my music exams – I’ll practice more so I can get better,” she said pragmatically.
The Middle Ridge State School student took out the Best Performance award in the 35th Charles and Motee Rogers Memorial Piano Bursary at the Glennie School yesterday, with a collection of differing contemporary pieces.
Isabelle was easily the smallest finalist but showed off her incredible skill and hard work in front of the crowd.
“I feel really happy that I won all these prizes and I played well,” she said.
“My mum helps encourage me to play better and my piano teacher also helps me as well.”
The competition, run by the Toowoomba branch of the Queensland Music Teachers’ Association, is the only competition in Darling Downs designed for pianists.
QMTA president and Isabelle’s teacher Paula MelvilleClark said it was a chance for talented young players to test where their skill was.
“These are the kids that are doing the eisteddfods, the exams and the competitions,” she said.
“It’s the major competition here in the Darling Downs, it’s about the only piano competition that we have other than the eisteddfod.
“If we didn’t have this competition, they’d have to go to the Gold Coast or Brisbane to compete.”
While she’s winning awards, it appears Isabelle’s talents are still not truly known by her school friends.
“I don’t think (my friends have) ever seen me play. They know that I play, but they’ve never seen me play,” she said.