I’ve been watching the BBC Proms recently in the rare moments I get to actually sit down in an evening and, as always, I remember my time back in Australia as a professional violinist/violist with various orchestras there. It’s only been 6 years since I was playing fulltime but it really feels like a lifetime.

Being able to enjoy such a career held extra significance for me because, unlike all those playing on the Proms who have been playing since childhood, I never touched a stringed instrument until I was 28.

Both my parents were musical, Dad being a Pro and Mum an exceptionally talented amateur, I had lessons from the age of 6 on the piano and then moved onto the organ by the age of ten. But of course, so many of us find better and  ’cooler’ things to do in their teens so my music lessons fell by the wayside but I never lost my love of music.

At age 28 I decided to yield to that little voice inside me and went out and bought myself a violin. Now, most adults do this sort of thing just as a hobby but I was deadly serious…I was going to learn properly and turn professional.

I booked myself a course of lessons with a brilliant violinist, Sylvia Knox at the Central Coast Conservatorium in Gosford NSW, and so began my journey. She was fantastic and brought out in me the musician I wanted to be.

Within 5 years I was playing in local orchestras and by 2000 I was studying at Diploma level at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney.  Plus freelancing around Sydney. I loved it.

During my time in Gosford I met several ‘older’ ladies who were relearning skills they thought they had lost.  They had learnt the violin as young girls but packed away their instrument when they became wives and mothers. Now they had retired and wished to pick up where they left off, and they did!.

I believe that everyone can learn music, that there is an instrument to suit everyone, and the satisfaction that comes from developing and honing a skill/talent is never ending. 

Of course I also believe that all children should be given an opportunity to learn an instrument, I reckon so many of todays ‘bored’ youth could have their lives changed around if someone would only put a clarinet, flute or whatever in their hands.

If you think you are ‘too old’ to achieve music skills, think again. Go out and buy a violin; raise the lid on that old piano or dust off the cello you’ve kept in the attic, and get some lessons.  Along the way you will also get confidence, a lot of fun, deep satisfaction and you will make a whole new circle of friends. 

Start your new career today!.

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