Featuring soloist Leanne McGowan
Leanne McGowan is 17 years old and is in her final year at school. She started learning violin with Yuri Djachenko and now studies with Spiros Rantos.Leanne performed as a concerto soloist with the Queensland Youth Symphony (QYS) for their opening concert in 2017 and was soloist for their international tour to Macau, China and Germany. Leanne also performed as a soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) in 2017 as winner of the QSO Young Instrumentalist Prize. Leanne has extensive orchestral experience with QYS where she is currently Concertmaster, and Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) in addition to her school orchestral experience. This is Leanne’s second year with AYO for their February and July Seasons. Leanne also loves playing chamber music and participated in the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s National Academy for two years as well as performing at the AYO National Music Camp for the last three years and with the Somerville Quartet and Senior Consort.
Leanne toured regional Queensland earlier this year as concertmaster and soloist with the QYO Chamber Orchestra. She has also participated in various orchestral projects in Melbourne and Brisbane with professional musicians from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra and other selected young emerging artists. Leanne has won numerous top prizes at competitions over the years. Most recently she participated in the Festival Academy in Budapest, Hungary, where she performed at the Ilona Feher Interational Violin Competition. Leanne has performed an extensive repertoire of orchestral and solo music and maintains an active role in the music community.
Leanne has been awarded Academic Excellence Awards including the top music awards at school. When she is not playing violin she loves singing and dancing. She successfully performed the lead role of Scarecrow in the school musical “The Wizard of Oz” in 2017.