Kathy Chow is riding a wave of musical success.
The 22-year-old Williams Landing pianist is one of 12 finalists nationwide selected to compete in the 2016 Australian National Piano Awards, which will be held between September 5 and 10.
The finalists were selected by a blind audition process in which the judges listened to performances on CD by the entrants before picking a top 12.
Chow will have to perform two 90-minute recitals in the first round of the competition, and will have to follow those up with another two 90-minute recitals if she makes it further.
Chow said she was surprised and happy to have been selected.
“I really wasn’t sure if I would get in because I put in a CD at the last minute,” she said.
Chow is also one of four finalists who will take to the stage this Friday to compete for the $13,500 Sydney Eisteddfod piano scholarship.
Chow graduated with first-class honours in piano performance at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and has performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Iwaki Auditorium and the Government Ballroom of Western Australia government ballroom.
In 2014, she won first prize in the Boroondara Eisteddfod piano concerto award with her performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the Zelman Memorial Symphony at Hawthorn town hall.
Next month, she will travel to London and start study for an artist masters in performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she has been offered a partial scholarship.
