BMus(Perf)
At St Margaret’s 2008-2014; Prefect, Music Captain, Strings Captain
Annabelle Traves is an award-winning violinist who, in her final year at St Margaret’s, was Prefect, Music Captain, Strings Captain and Old Girls’ Association Prizewinner.
After graduating from St Margaret’s, Annabelle studied a Bachelor of Music Performance with Professor Alice Waten at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. At fourteen Annabelle was awarded a scholarship to attend the Rising Stars Program at the Sydney Conservatorium, University of Sydney.
Annabelle was a scholarship recipient at the University of Sydney and at The Women’s College, University of Sydney. In 2018, Annabelle was added to the Dean’s List of Excellence in Academic Performance at the University of Sydney. This year Annabelle was awarded the Sydney University Alumni Convocation Medal for leadership.
She has been a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra, for which she was the youngest member first chosen at age fourteen. In 2018, Annabelle was appointed Concertmaster of the Australian Youth Orchestra and in 2019 was reappointed as Concertmaster to lead the AYO’s international tour, which saw the orchestra performing in world renowned venues such as The Het Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Kurhaus (Wiesbaden) and the Sydney Opera House alongside soloists Daniel Muller-Schott and Jan Lisiecki, and conductor Krzysztof Urbanski. Annabelle has also been Concertmaster of Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz Cologne Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Apex, Conservatorium of Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Modern Music Ensemble and the AYO NMC Chamber Orchestra.
Annabelle has also toured as soloist with the Tagiev Chamber Orchestra and performed with them in the Sydney Opera House, Estonia, Shanghai, Seville and at Carnegie Hall, New York.
In her senior year at St Margaret’s, Annabelle toured Europe as soloist and concertmaster of the St Margaret’s Chamber Strings performing in London and Paris. While on tour she competed in the Llangollen International Music Festival in Wales, a competition which attracts over 4000 international competitors, and was awarded first place. She has also been awarded the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Prize.
Annabelle was selected to attend the Estivo European Chamber Music Summer School on scholarship held at the Conservatorio E.F Dall’Abaco in Verona, Italy, where she performed and studied under internationally renowned professors Eberhard Feltz, Wayne Foster-Smith and Niklas Schmidt.
Annabelle has also performed in masterclasses for renowned names such as Maxim Vengerov, Anne- Sophie Mutter, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Rudolf Koelman, Linus Roth and Krzysztof Wegrzyn and has performed alongside musicians such as Vilde Frang, Lawrence Power and Nicolas Altstaedt.
In 2018, Annabelle was the recipient of the Henderson Traveller’s Scholarship from the University of Sydney for her quartet, which included mentoring programs in Europe and performance opportunities in Paris at the commencement of 2019. Annabelle was mentored by professors Niklas Schmidt, Oliver Wille and Gunter Pichler, former Concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic and first violinist of the Alban Berg Quartet. Following this, Annabelle was offered a full scholarship to study with Professor Pichler at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Aside from her classical music endeavours, Annabelle has also enjoyed performing on television, as a semi-finalist for Australia’s Got Talent, The Voice, X Factor, and on tour, accompanying Delta Goodrem, Bruce Springsteen and Michael Buble.
This year Annabelle was thrilled to accept a master’s position for solo violin performance at the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz Cologne, studying under Professor Barnabas Kelemen.
Annabelle performs on a 1784 Gagliano.
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