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Biographies
Violeta Shopova is a 21-year-old violinist from Sydney, Australia. She began playing the violin at the age of six and shortly after began studying in the class of Natasha Stojanovska. She is currently in her fourth year of university at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music studying under the tutelage of Prof. Goetz Richter. Violeta is pursuing a degree in Business Law as her second major at the University of Sydney. She has also studied with distinguished professors such as Evgeny Sorkin, Oleg Kondratenko and Timothy Kantor.
She is the recipient of multiple scholarships, including the Sandro Asinari 2010 Violin Loan and the George and Margaret Henderson Scholarship for international studies. In January and February of this year, these scholarships have allowed her to perform with the Macedonian Opera and Ballet in major productions of Scheherazade, Walpurgis Night and Cavalleria Rusticana. Recently Violeta had been accepted to participate in a solo violin masterclass at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria in the class of Prof. Silvia Marcovici, and for the second time in the Ohrid Summer Music Festival in a masterclass with Prof. Emilio Percan at the International Music Masterclasses (IMMC).
Violeta has been a member of the Fames Institute in 2023 and 2025 having performed in international festivals, recording orchestral classical and film music, and being invited to record with the Fames Project orchestra in 2025. In 2023 she performed with the Fames Institute at St. Sophia Church with Prof. Irina Muresanu (University of Maryland) at the 63rd Ohrid Summer Music Festival, at the French Embassy in Skopje, Macedonia for Bastille Day, and in Bucharest, Romania at the National University of Music.
Her solo performances include several appearances at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music String Lunchtime Concerts, Olli Mustonen Masterclass for Modern Composition, Fintan Murphy Masterclass and a quartet masterclass with American violist, Eric Wong.
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Rena Tang is currently in her fourth year (Honours) learning from Julian Smiles at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2024, she was winner of Balmain Sinfonia’s Concerto Competition, as well as Sydney Concert Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, allowing her to perform Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with both orchestras in August, 2025.
Rena enjoys playing music in various settings, highlights including recording in the Like A Version studio for singer Carla Wehbe on triple j, and playing in Kuhmo’s 54th Chamber Music Festival upon receiving Sydney Conservatorium’s Henderson Scholarship. As a keen orchestral player, she is grateful for many opportunities she’s had to work with the Willoughby Symphony, Ensemble Apex and Caesura Ensemble.
Channing Chu is a New Zealand-born pianist currently in his fourth year studying with Professor Phillip Shovk at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he has also worked with Clemens Leske. He previously completed piano performance studies at the University of Auckland under Professors Sarah Watkins and Rae de Lisle, and has also studied with Jason Bae. In addition, he has pursued conducting studies with Karen Grylls in Auckland, and with Stephen Williams and Elisabeth Scott at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
He has participated in masterclasses with Glenn Riddle, Rita Reichmann, Giulio Biddau, and Anna Fedorova. In 2021, Channing was a finalist in the Aegio International Piano Competition, which awarded him a scholarship to the Bellissimo International Piano Festival, where he worked with James Anagnoson, Sijing Ye, and Joanna Sochacka.
Further competition successes include being a finalist in the Nomea International Piano Competition (Spain), Second Prize in the Paderewski in Memoriam International Piano Competition, and the Silver Award in the London Youth Piano Competition. He also won Third Prize in the Autumn edition of the Chopin Avenue International Piano Competition (2021), which led to a scholarship for the 2022 Chopin Avenue Summer School, where he studied with Andrzej Pikul, Magdalena Lisak, and Kate Lee. That same year, he made his Polish debut with performances at NOSPR and in the UNESCO City of Music. Channing has performed in New Zealand, Australia, Italy, and Poland.
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