KD

Violinist Khalida De Ridder hails from a remote property in the far north of Australia, beginning to play at the age of four. Born to Belgian and Dutch parents, her formative years were spent in regional northern Australia where she performed at every major communtiy event from an early age. She has since performed in The Netherlands, Denmark, Spain. A prize winner at many classical music eisteddfods, she won her first at just five years of age, later receiving the Performers Trust Foundation Award (2013) and Origin Foundation Prize from Creative Partnerships Australia (2014) which funded international study at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with violinist Michael Malmgreen. 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 performed chamber music at major Australian venues including 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 Australia Day medal for her contribution to folk music in Australia, invited to tutor at numerous festivals and 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 associations and tertiary level string meetups and presents at National and International Research conferences. She directs a chamber music festival in North Queensland and resides between Melbourne, North QLD and Europe.