AUTHOR: ALIYA VOYLES
This Tuesday’s assembly was the usual mix of updates and announcements, with the exception of a performance that effortlessly dominated the stage. Maddie Nelson, a year 10, dazzled the audience with a spectacular rendition of Zigeunerweisen (‘Gypsy Airs’).
Maddie has been playing violin for around 11 years now, with her daily practices ranging from one to three hours. She is concert master of all orchestras at CGGS, as well as the ACT Youth Orchestra, and plays in five orchestras in total. She also plays in the Canberra Youth Orchestra. “It takes a lot of dedication and time,” Maddie said after her performance. “There’s a saying that goes something like, ‘you can love it because you’re good at it, or you can be good at it because you love it.’” The piece that she played was one of her pieces for an upcoming music exam.
From the moment Maddie walked on stage in her stunning black dress and raised her arm to play, to the moment she brought her bow back down, the audience was enraptured, sitting in stunned silence. “She did fantastically,” said Ms. Rowan Martin, Director of Strings at CGGS. “It’s a very difficult thing to play in front of your peers. All from memory – it was a very long piece, and a very hard piece. She’s a real asset, and a real leader.”
The piece started off with a bang, piercing the Hall with beautiful, yet “stupidly high notes,” as Maddie said. It then changed to become romantic, “heart wrenching,” finishing off by switching suddenly to a quick, complex tune. “It’s definitely the piece that I’m most connected with out of my exam pieces… It just gives me such adrenaline.”
Maddie will next be featured at upcoming orchestral performances in Term 3.