15-year-old Australian violinist Ellie Malonzo commenced her violin studies aged 5 and is studying under Winthrop Professor Paul Wright.

At 14, Ellie was accepted into the University of Western Australia’s Conservatorium of Music, where she will commence her Bachelor of Music in February 2025. At 13, she was accepted into the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, England, an internationally renowned music school founded by Menuhin himself.

Ellie made her solo debut in 2022 at age 12, as the youngest soloist to have performed with the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra. That year, Ellie won 1st prize in the American Music Talent Competition, Brisbane International Youth Music Festival, Kings Peak International Music Competition, London International Music Competition, London Classical Music Competition, May Classical Music International Youth Music Competition, 14th International Competition ‘Luigi Cerritelli’, June Composition International Youth Music Competition, Melbourne International Strings and Piano Festival, and the Red Maple International Music Competition, where she also achieved grand prize. She was awarded 2nd prize in the Radda Rise International Strings and Piano Festival, Euterpe Music Awards, American Classical Young Musicians Award, 3rd prize in the BTHVN Wien International Competition, Singapore International Music Competition and placed as the 2nd Runner-up in the International Youth Music Competition Artist of the Year.

In 2023, Ellie was awarded 1st Prize in the Caneres International Music Competition, Brisbane International Youth Music Competition and the Amadeus International Music Awards. She was also awarded a special mention in the Leonid Kogan International Competition for Young Violinists, was selected to participate in the Australian Chamber Orchestra Academy in Sydney and performed as a soloist with the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra and Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of the 2024 season included Ellie’s performances as a soloist with the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, MetSO Chamber Orchestra, Mosman Symphony Orchestra (Sydney), Wiener Stadtorchester (Vienna, Austria) and the Vienna Pops Orchestra. She was selected to participate in the Australian Chamber Orchestra Academy in Melbourne and travelled to Dunsborough to perform in the St George’s College South-West Winter Tour. In December, she performed as a soloist in Berlin and Schwerin, Germany, and as the rising star in the Vienna Pops New Year’s Eve Gala under the baton of Mark Coughlan.

Also a composer, Ellie began composing for chamber ensembles at 6 and finished the first movement of a concerto for violin and string orchestra at 7. She has since finished that concerto and been commissioned to write two others for violin and chamber orchestra, a double violin concerto and a concerto for violin and viola. Her portfolio includes other shorter works such as two fugues (one for organ and another for three violins), four aphorisms and a ground bass, a short work for piano, and a lied. She is mentored by Stewart Smith from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and previously by Holly Broadbent. Her compositions have been performed by the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, Mosman Symphony Orchestra and Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Ellie was interviewed by ABC Classic had one of her compositions aired on Classic Breakfast in 2023. She was also featured on the Violin Channel and was interviewed by 9NewsPerth in December 2024.

She is fortunate to play on a fine Italian violin – a Joseph Panormo instrument made in 1787 and plays with two French bows.