This time last year, the Hinterland Times published a story about Sunshine Coast twin violinists Rawhinia and Astar Castle and their quest to raise money to buy better violins in order to progress their music careers.
We’re happy to share the news that they reached their goal sooner than expected. They recently purchased two beautiful antique German violins and are now ready to take on the world.
THE TWINS have spent a solid year playing at fundraising concerts and weddings, busking, baking biscuits to sell and accepting donations from far and wide and Katusha says it was the Hinterland Times article that really kickstarted the fundraising.
“People started calling offering help, ideas and money, mostly from around here, but also from around Australia — from Melbourne and north Queensland. Without that article these violins would not be here today.
“However, shortly after the article was published last year we released we had underestimated the amount of funds we would need to raise”.
They were finally able to raise most of the money to buy two 100-year-old German violins, however they had to borrow the last $3000 and are still paying off the debt. After searching every violin shop in Brisbane, they found their instruments at the workshop of Brisbane master violin
maker John Simmers.
maker John Simmers.
Simmers had bought the violins at auctions in Europe, then impeccably restored them and had them for sale in his workshop. He was so impressed with the girls’ efforts, he gave them an extremely generous discount for each instrument, and a beautiful handcrafted German bow each.
“They have an incredible teacher, Spiros Rantos from the University of Queensland, and they had to take their instruments to him to make sure
they were up to standard,” says Katusha. “We took numerous violins to Spiros, which meant paying a week’s insurance each time. He was very impressed with both of these violins.”
they were up to standard,” says Katusha. “We took numerous violins to Spiros, which meant paying a week’s insurance each time. He was very impressed with both of these violins.”
The two, 100 year-old German violins.
The girls can’t wipe the smiles off their faces as they take their treasured new violins out of their cases and place them carefully on the table to show them off. Astar’s violin is made of a deep reddish maple and was made by German master craftsman Heinrich Theodore Heberlein jr in 1914.
Rawhinia’s violin is a honey-coloured maple made by Albin L. Paulus jr for the Royal Court of Saxony. It is a very rare ‘female’ violin with a one-piece back, which creates a warmer sound (most violins are made with two pieces of wood with a seam down the middle).
Rawhinia’s violin is a honey-coloured maple made by Albin L. Paulus jr for the Royal Court of Saxony. It is a very rare ‘female’ violin with a one-piece back, which creates a warmer sound (most violins are made with two pieces of wood with a seam down the middle).
“We tried countless violins and these were the first ones we liked,” says Rawhinia and Astar adds, “Sound is really individual, you have to fall in love with it.”
“I’m really proud they've had the stay-in power to keep going and achieve their goal,” says their mother Katusha, a single parent who supports her daughters every step of the way. “It’s quite a wonderful thing to see your children learn. Violin is a very hard instrument to learn, and you
have to have a lot of resilience, tolerance and patience with yourself.
have to have a lot of resilience, tolerance and patience with yourself.
The girls laugh as they admit they make lots of mistakes and say the trick is trying to cover them up and not being too hard on themselves.
The girls were set on becoming violinists from the age of two and a half, and they saved to buy their first violins at six. Now at 14, after nearly five years of lessons, they are studying for their grade 8 AMEB exam (Australian Music Exam Board). The university acceptance level is grade 6.
The girls with Brisbane master violin maker, John Simmers.
“In the grade 7 exam they both got A-plus high distinctions, which are hardly ever given out,” says Katusha. “It is a real honour.”
Despite their exceptional musical talents and academic intelligence — they are studying senior years at distance education and are doing the beginnings of first year university level maths for fun — the girls come across as unpretentious, giggly, cheeky 14-year-olds not at all lacking in humility. They like to give their time to worthy causes, having played at fundraisers for the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, the Make A Wish Foundation and The Kids Like Nick Foundation.
“They performed at a palliative care unit at Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, and they bought all the beds out into the courtyard and made tents with the sheets,” says Katusha. “One of the patients had been a violinist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and her favourite piece of music was [Pachelbel’s] Canon. The girls didn’t know that, but they played that piece and the lady passed away just afterwards.”
In another big boost to their careers, the twins have just received a scholarship from the Queensland branch of the Country Women’s Association to pay a year’s worth of fees for the Queensland Youth Orchestra, and they’re excited to be joining the orchestra on a trip to Canberra to play for Australia’s leaders at Parliament House in June.
“There are 85 of us going down,” says Aster, and both girls light up with excitement when asked if their mum is going. “No!” they answer in unison with a shared glint of mischief in their eyes. Most of the musicians are of university age and the girls openly admit they like to play ‘twin tricks’ on them. Sounds like it’s going to be a fun trip.
Astar and Rawhinia hope to go to the University of Queensland and do a double major in maths and music, adding they have dreams of studying engineering and quantum physics and applying it to live performance.
One of the biggest highlights of their career was meeting and playing for Nigel Kennedy. Next they’d love to meet and play for Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov. Their ultimate goal is to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and at the rate this determined, disciplined pair is achieving their goals, you get the feeling it may well happen in the not too distant future.
