Jasmine's musical success story

15-year-old Jasmine Morris is a year 12 pupil in Coleraine Grammar School and she might be recognisable to some readers due to her outstanding abilities on the violin.

Jasmine (currently 1st Violin in the EA orchestra) auditioned for the Ulster Youth Orchestra in December 2016. She succeeded in securing a place in the midst of a very competitive field of 15-23 year olds. This is an outstanding achievement for a pupil who is at the youngest end of this field and undoubtedly is a reflection of her innate natural ability on the violin and her dedication to practising her pieces to perfection.

She will play with the Ulster Youth Orchestra this summer and perform at the Ulster Hall in Belfast and the Guildhall in Derry. Furthermore, she will be tutored by some of the best instrumentalists in the UK on a summer residential course.

Another incredible achievement for Jasmine this year has been being awarded the prestigious and highly sought after “Robert Lewin Scholarship” by the UK based “Awards for Young Musicians”. For this award, she had to play her Grade 8 violin piece for her Music teacher to film and send to the adjudication panel.

This performance, alongside testimonials from her Music teachers (Richard and Jayne McCreery) and violin teacher (Colin Eliott) helped to ensure her success. She was one of 180 students from the whole of the UK to receive this award amongst very strong competition and by her own admission Jasmine, “just gave it a go”, not expecting to be selected.

Alongside this scholarship, Jasmine will benefit from individually tailored support through masterclasses and advanced skills workshops with professional musicians. She will have the opportunity to perform at an awards day at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

A spokesperson for Coleraine Grammar School said: “This is clearly a young musician who has a wonderfully bright future ahead of her, and indeed has accomplished so much already. She is an amazing talent and Coleraine Grammar School is very proud to have her as a pupil.”