Violinist Teresa Yang has won the 40th annual NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition.

For her performance of Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto with the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra, the 17-year-old has received a $5,000 cash prize and a concert engagement with the orchestra in 2025.

Teresa Yang. Photo © Rez Bagheri, New Point of View Photography

Yang was also awarded the $500 KPO Player’s prize for best performance in rehearsal, and the inaugural Emily Sun Violin Prize, thanks to which she will be loaned Sun’s Australian-made 1946 A.E. Smith violin for up to three years.

The senior runner-up was 17-year-old euphonium player Sebastian Rowe, earning the $1,000 Barbara Robinson Award. The 13-year-old oboist Cloris Xu received the junior runner-up’s prize, the $1,000 Barbara Cran Award.

Finalists Jiashan Wang (12, piano), Lara Dowdeswell (17, violin) and Jamie Wallace (16, cello) were also awarded a $250 cash prize for participating in the finals.

This year’s adjudicators were violinist Madeleine Easton and pianist Simon Tedeschi.

Cloris Xu. Photo © Rez Bagheri, New Point of View Photography

Yang, a Year 12 student at Meriden Girls’ High School, is...