Olive Butler cannot remember the first time she picked up a violin.
She has to rely on family stories which indicate she was aged 4.
She discovered the instrument as another girl at kindergarten played it because her mother taught violin.
''My older brother played piano and I was a stubborn 4-year-old who didn't want to do the same thing. I wanted to do something different.''
It turned out well as the piano and violin went well together and enabled the brother and sister to play together.
''It's really nice.''
Sixteen years on, she is about to stand up on stage to perform for the first time as a soloist with the Dunedin Youth Orchestra, conducted by Dr Anthony Ritchie.
''It's a little bit scary. I've never done anything like it before but it's a wonderful experience to have.''
The honour was the result of winning one of the orchestra's Young Musicians Award scholarships.
She has been doing a lot of practice with help from her teacher, Dr Ritchie.
The concert would feature music from around the time of World War 1, including a composition written by Dr Ritchie's late father, John, in 2006 to commemorate Gallipoli, called Gallipoli Voices .
''The piece I'm playing is The Lark Ascending [by Ralph Vaughan Williams], the whole piece should sound like birdsong. I need to get into the right head space so it sounds completely free.''
Playing the music in Knox Church should work really well, she said.
''It should fill the space nicely.''
When not playing violin she is studying towards a double degree in psychology and classical performance at the University of Otago.
Her interest in psychology came about after a chance taking of a psychology paper which she really enjoyed.
''I'm really interested in how people think and tying this in with music; there is a lot of overlap.''
In her third year, she was still not sure of what her future held but she hoped it would involve music ''somehow''.
''It won't necessarily be a performance career but I want to keep playing.''
While she concentrated on classical music for her studies, Miss Butler said she enjoyed playing contemporary music and had competed in the Battle of the Bands and taken part in her theatre friends' musicals.
Next semester she is off, she hopes, to the University of Durham on an exchange where she planned to concentrate on her music and enjoy the experience.
''England has a wonderful music history so it'll be great to be in that place.
''We play a lot of English music in this concert as well so it will set me up.''
The Southern Youth Choir would accompany the orchestra for Gallipoli Voices and Mark Nielson would narrate.
