On February 24 next year, an up and coming violinist, Avigail Bushakovitz will perform for Friends of Music in Durban.

Avigail (15) is a grade 9 home scholar in George. She was born in Jerusalem and started receiving violin tuition in George at the age of eight. She has completed grade 7 piano with distinction and has been a violin pupil of Prof Jack de Wet since 2000.

In 2001 she was a finalist and strings category winner at the Sanlam Competition for Primary School pupils. She was a soloist with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra in the Youth Music Festivals of 2002 under the baton of Christopher Dowdeswell and 2003 with David Tidboald as conductor.

In 2002 Avigail performed twice with the Hugo Lambrechts Symphony Orchestra. The same year, she was the winner of the strings category in the ABSA National Youth Music Competition and was awarded a special prize for the best performance of a South African composition.

She performed as soloist with the KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in the National Youth Concerto Festival under the baton of David Tidboald in 2003. She will be playing Saint-Saens Concerto No.3 with the ACMP orchestra in January 2004.

“I can honestly say that looking back over more than 30 years of the Youth Concerto Festival in Cape Town and Durban, I feel Abigail’s is the most exciting talent to have emerged,” says David Tidboald who is also the conductor laureate of the KZN Philharmonic.