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In front of an audience of over 800 at the Perth Concert Hall, accompanied by a full symphony orchestra, UWA honours student Jeremy Garside won the coveted VOSE Memorial Prize Concerto Competition , with his performance of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 .

Having participated in the competition in 2015 and 2016 (when he won the People’s Choice Award), Jeremy wowed the judges with his musicality and mastery of this challenging work to take out what is one of the School of Music’s most prestigious prizes last week.

All three finalists performed exceptionally; with Megan Barbetti (Nielson Flute Concerto) narrowly missing out to percussionist Jet Kye Chong, who took out the People’s Choice Award for his performance of Keiko Abe’s Prism Rhapsody.

Jet, a second-year student in the Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours), began learning percussion in high school. While his dream career would integrate music and mathematics, he was happy to spend the competition night winning audience members over to percussion.

“I love percussion for many reasons. First and foremost, I love the sounds of the instruments. Few instruments can challenge the beautiful tones of the marimba, or the character that the percussion section of an orchestra brings to music,” Jet says.

“I also enjoy the physicality of the instruments - playing percussion involves the whole body and a deep understanding of, and familiarity with, each instrument. At times it can almost be like dancing, and I find the expressive capabilities of percussion really invigorating.

“It’s not every day that you get to perform a solo concerto with a fantastic orchestra at a venue like the Perth Concert Hall. It was a new experience for me, and every step of preparing the concerto was really exciting.”

The concert also included Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms performed by the UWA Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus of UWA, with an encore of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody ending the night in style!

Learn more about the School of Music’s upcoming performances here .