Thanks to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, Friends of Music offer talented young performers a platform on their prestigious recital programme every month. These youngsters are named Prelude Performers and receive an amount of R1,000 as a bursary/study aid apart from the opportunity of appearing on the same programme as internationally renowned soloists and groups.

The next Prelude Performer will be young violinist Kathleen Clay. Accepted as a contestant in the prestigious Sanlam Music Competition 1997, she played in her first violin Eisteddfod at the age of five and went on to be a consistent winner in the string category in both the Natal and Queensburgh Eisteddfods.

She has played first violin in the KZN Youth Orchestra since its inception and also played in the Durban City Orchestra as the assistant concert master. Consistently achieving top marks in music exams and competitions, Kathleen was accepted as a contestant in the prestigious ABSA Young Musicians Competition in Port Elizabeth in 1999 and again in 2000. She studies violin with Susan McAdam and hopes to make violin playing her career.

Kathleen is also an accomplished pianist and singer. In her performance for Friends of Music, Kathleen will be accompanied by Zoë Stacy Frost who also gives her weekly repertoire lessons and monitors her general musical development.

Kathleen Clay will perform prior to the piano recital by the internationally renowned Russian pianist Olga Kern, winner of last year’s prestigious Van Cliburn Competition in the USA.

The Friends of Music concert takes place at the Durban Jewish Club on June 25 at 19h45. There is safe parking and a cash bar is available. Book at Computicket.