Listen to Andrew’s original composition submitted with his entry.
Andrew Dharma [Age 12, NSW]
Composition: Dream of Heaven
Andrew Dharma was born in July 2008 in Sydney, Australia. Having shown great passion and love for classical music at a very young age, he began the Violin, Piano and Composition studies at the age of 5, 7 and 11 with Vov Dylan Elsley, Stephen Watson and Heva Chan, respectively. He has received masterclasses from Elena Kats-Chernin, Evan Elsley and Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich.
At the age of 9, Andrew made his first professional debut as a violin soloist performing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons 1st Movement. His distinguished talents as a composer and violinist were recognised at the age of 10 when he first performed his own composition, I. Cold and Windy, The Weather in the 2019 Sydney Youth Orchestras Spring Showcase.
Andrew won the 2020 Founder and President Prize of the 5th International Composition Competition “Artistes en herbe” in Luxembourg, received the 2020 Commonwealth Parliamentarian’s Merit Award and a scholarship from St George Christian School. He was the First-Prize winner at the Armidale Composition and Wollongong Strings Eisteddfods Australia in 2020 and 2021. Andrew is a member of Sydney Youth Orchestras (Brahms – Kathryn Crossing).
His passion is to be a composer, a conductor and a performer as a testimony of his God-given talents.
Composition inspiration
Following a dream I had when I was sick last year, I dreamt of heaven on top of clouds, I decided to compose a fanfare ‘Dream of Heaven’ to represent this special scene. I thought heaven was a wondrous place with no sadness. This meant that the fanfare needed to grab the audience’s attention with the happiness and strong sounds that the orchestra can make, reflecting on a joyous experience in heaven. This piece uses a combination of the pentatonic and major scale to capture mainly an oriental sound for a strong opening. The unexpected changes in dynamics and exploration of the wide range in dynamics try to reflect on the sudden surprise and longing to know what heaven brings. I intended to create tension in the beginning, building up to the vision of the majestic heaven as people wish to experience spending time in wonderful paradise.