Biography

Violinist Khalida De Ridder hails from a remote property in far northern Australia born to Belgian and Dutch-Indonesian parents. Beginning to play at the age of four, she took prizes at various competitions from young as age five. Khalida went on to receive numerous scholarships and prizes for further study, first at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney and eventually at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
She has performed in The Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and in Scandinavia. Khalida has worked in professional orchestras such as the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Arhus Symphony Orchestra (DK) and Copenhagen Philharmonic (DK) and as a guest leader of various ensembles and orchestras. She is an active chamber musican having performed at most major Australian venues including the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre and has recorded for Italy’s leading classical music label ‘Stradivarius Milano Dischi'.

There are number of international and national folk accolades to her name including Junior Australasian Fleadh Fiddle Champion (2003), Golden Fiddle award (2010), both the Chris Wendt award (2006) and the Declan Affley award (2009) from the National Folk Festival of Australia, where also a finalist in the Youth Folk Awards (2009). At just fifteen years of age, she was awarded a Junior Cultural award from the Australian Government for her contribution to folk music in Australia.

Graduating with a Doctorate degree in Creative Arts in 2020 at the University of Tasmania, she was mentored by Dr. Susan Collins as well as Guillaume Sutre (Quatuor Ysaÿe) during residency in Paris. Khalida is in demand as a guest tutor at many string camps in Australia, having facilitated masterclasses for various string teacher associations as well as presentations of performance practice at international research conferences. She directs a chamber music festival in North Queensland and outreach programs focusing on regionally based musicians.