Growing up as a girl who writes poetry and plays music (as opposed to playing netball) in a small country town (population: 100) people  means you’re used to standing out, to people not quite understanding your goals, to creatively finding solutions for under-resourced performing arts programs. It also means that I’ve had the opportunity to try my hand at many different things, such as debating, choreographing, starting a magazine. It gave me long hours to read books, write in diaries and practice my violin (and direct my brother in small plays of my own writing on the back verandah of our house).

My parents were always supportive of our creative endeavours – Mum being a primary school music teacher and Dad the only non-swearing shearer in the district (before he became a school chaplain). The country also teaches you to have more of an open heart to people you’ve just met (or maybe that’s just my natural naivety). I was lucky to have a top notch violin teacher who happened to fall in love with and marry a farmer so even though I lived in rural Victoria, I had quality tuition on my violin.

While I was growing up in Picola I couldn’t wait to get to the city and go to uni and get started on all my big plans. To be honest I haven’t really lost any of those plans, but I have learnt how to realistically go about them. I decided to study music, classical violin performance at the University of Melbourne. At first I really wasn’t sure why I did that, other than the fact that the violin was always something that I had done. I mean this was a course seemingly chock-a-block with child prodigies set and competitive violinists set on a full time orchestral job. My dreams were just as high but not in such a narrow field. I didn’t just want to play classical music, but have the skills and technique to play any genre of music from folk to jazz. And I didn’t just want to play violin even, but learn about voice. In fact in my degree I haven’t just played in the University Orchestra, string ensembles and solo recitals but I’ve been a theatre reviewer, costume designer, published poet, sung in the Ormond College Choir.

I find it hard to narrow down my interests and skills, but I believe that this is somewhat of a strength in this modern day and age where musicians are not only expected to be able to play their instruments, but teach and appear on television and write blogs. Doing a variety of things excites me and it is where I believe innovation lies, in being able to combine seemingly unrelated things in a fresh and exciting way.

My favorite project is my alternative folk band Rare Child. Here I get to bring together many of my interests: writing songs, singing and playing the violin. Not only that, but as a band just starting out in Melbourne I also have the role of manager, promoter, booking agent, web designer, treasurer and CEO.

This somewhat influenced me in choosing to do my third year ‘Careers in Music’ placement at SYN (Student Youth Network). I was interested, and it seemed important to, learn about the different mediums people experience music. Through this placement I have had hands on experience in both radio and television and those are things I will definitely continue creating.

In the future I see my life and career being a combination of many artistic projects and endeavours. It’s in the nature of the musician’s career that not only do you perform, but you manage your own events and teach others. Unlike some of my classmates I don’t know exactly what role I want to end up in, but I believe by continually learning skills, experiencing the world, creating and developing artistic projects, my path will open up day by day.