Nine-year-old violinist Ellinor D'Melon earned herself a standing ovation on Sunday night at the 'Music Through the Ages 2' concert held at the University Chapel, Mona. The audience was clearly impressed by her performance of two demanding pieces, Tchaikovsky's 'Chanson Sans Parole' and Kreisler's 'Preludium and Allegro'.

D'Melon, who has performed at more than 50 concerts over the last four years, was born in Kingston on December 10, 2000. Her Cuba-born mother, Olga Maria Moraguez, a pianist, generally accompanies her.

Music lessons

The same violin Ellinor received when she was a year and a half was the one she used to start formal music lessons from Fay Robotham. Since January 2005, she has been a student of Steven Woodham, and she gave her first public performance in June that year.

At four years old she won first prize in the Music Festival of Jamaica competition in the Under-7 category and in 2007 she won first prize in the Under-13 category. She has played at the Ward Theatre, King's House, the Cuban embassy, the French embassy, The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, the Hilton Kingston and Royal Plantation Inn, among other venues.

So far this year, she has played in England and in Italy.

She has received violin lessons from a number of highly regarded musicians from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Cuban National Symphonic Orchestra, the Gifted Violin School in Barcelona, Spain, and the Reina Sofic Conservatory in Madrid, Spain.

-Michael Reckord.