KD

KD
Violinist Khalida De Ridder hails from a remote property in the far north of Australia born to Belgian and Dutch parents. Beginning to play at the age of four, soon after, began to perform at every major community event both as a soloist and folk musician, invited to collaborate and perform with high profile visiting folk artists. Khalida went on to receive numerous scholarships and prizes for further study, first in Sydney and eventually at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She has performed in The Netherlands, Denmark and Spain. Khalida has worked in professional orchestras such as the Arhus Symphony Orchestra (DK), the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Khalida took the position of Concertmaster with the Frankston Symphony Orchestra (2020-2023) and has consistently performed in various chamber ensembles at major Australian venues including the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre. In 2019 she signed to 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, invited to tutor at numerous festivals and folk music camps nationally. Khalida was the Program Director and Assistant Festival Director for the Tablelands Folk Festival (QLD) and has performed on various radio station broadcasts such as ABC (Sydney, Cairns, Wagga Wagga, Canberra, Hobart) ' Mostly Folk' (Hobart) and 3MBS (Melbourne).

Khalida graduated with a Doctorate degree in Creative Arts in 2020 at the University of Tasmania, mentored by Dr. Susan Collins and Guillaume Sutre via residency in Paris. Khalida is in demand as a guest tutor at many string camps in Australia, conducted masterclasses for various string teacher associations and tertiary level string meetups and presents her performance practice research at National and International Research conferences. She directs a chamber music festival in North Queensland and an outreach program focusing on regionally based students.