A Wagga high school student has been recognised for her exceptional musical ability after receiving the third best HSC music score in the state.
For 19-year old Wagga High School student Christina Perri, the news she had been awarded a score of 99 in her HSC music exam, the third best score in NSW, came as a complete shock.
"I was really surprised and I was not at all expecting to get such a good score,” she said.
“And being top three in the state was such a nice way to top off all the hard work I did during the year.
“I don't want this to make me become big headed though, because I've still got a long way to go."
This seems an unlikely outcome for the softly-spoken student, who has been honing her piano skills at the Riverina Conservatorium of Music for the last five years.
Though playing the piano since she was young, Ms Perri said it wasn’t until recently that it became a deep-seated passion she believed could lead to a career.
"When I started coming to the conservatorium I began to love playing,” she said. “I think when my teachers started asking me whether I really wanted to take my music further, that's when I started to think that it was what I really wanted to do."
Though she has also played the tenor saxophone, guitar and other instruments, Ms Perri admitted she was always drawn to the piano for its depth of sound.
"The piano is such a universal instrument and it can create so many different tone colours, you can do so much with it,” she said.
“When I master a piece of music l feel like I own a piece and I can really get lost in the music.”
For the exam, Ms Perri performed four classical pieces, including works by Beethoven and Rachmaninoff, and admits she got pre-exam jitters.
“There were definitely times when I was a nervous wreck and I felt like I might fall apart, but that's all just part of the learning experience,” she said.
Her phenomenal results didn’t come without hard work, with director of the conservatorium Hamish Tait acknowledging the countless hours of practice the teen put in.
“She would come in to practice every day, work alone in an isolated room and diligently process everything she'd been taught,” he said.
“These fantastic HSC marks are a wonderful recognition of all her hard work.”
The young Mozart has been successful in her audition for the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and hopes to attend the university next year.
