This year we publicised the awards to all conservatoria in Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria and South Australia, inviting applications for assistance from our foundation.
Applications closed on September 27 and were initially reviewed by Vatche Jambazian, Avan Yu and Fraser McEwing. We held live final auditions in the Willoughby showroom of Theme and Variations Piano Services on November 3, with Alexander Gavrylyuk and Tony Lee as our adjudicators.
The Theme & Variations Foundation is pleased to announce awards have been awarded to Reuben Tsang from Queensland, one award to Kanon Ito from NSW and one award to Jasmine Lai from Victoria to assist them in their studies.
We are always delighted to find, as we have this year, exciting, fresh talent coming through our teaching institutions.
Reuben Tsang
Cairns-born pianist Reuben Tsang is guided by Natasha Vlassenko OAM at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and performs in recitals, chamber ensembles and competitions.
Most recently, Reuben won First Prize, Best Recital and People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition. He has performed Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Northey and with the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Johannes Fritzsch. Reuben was also a semi-finalist and recipient of several prizes including the Nancy Weir Best Australian Pianist Award at the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition.
Kanon Ito
Kanon Ito, 18, began her piano studies at age 4 with Sayano Ito and now studies under Clemens Leske at the Sydney Conservatorium, where she is a recipient of The John and Dorothy Vimpani Pianoforte scholarship. Recently, she was invited to perform in the world premiere of David Paterson’s piano concerto alongside Alexander Gavrylyuk and placed 3rd in the 2023 2MBS Young Virtuoso Award. Her performances have been broadcasted on the 2MBS radio and she has received masterclasses from Uta Weyand, Matan Porat, and Giulio Biddau. Selected for Encore for Music Extension, she has performed solo at the Sydney Opera House.
Jasmine Lai
Jasmine is a multi-awarded young composer-pianist, studying piano with Glenn Riddle. After graduation from VCASS, she is continuing her piano performance studies at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Her major awards include Sydney Eisteddfod Junior Pianoforte Scholarship and recently Prodigy prize from Arts Classica International Junior Competition which will give her a solo recital opportunity in Rome in 2025. She has performed piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann with Camerata Orchestra and Preston Symphony Orchestra and in 2023 was winner of Youth Concerto Competition. Besides solo performance, Jasmine is also a composer (under tutelage of Dr Tony Gould) and has had works broadcasted by 3MBS and performed by Australian Youth Orchestras.
