Hawijch Elders: Navigating the Transition from Student to Soloist

Hello there, it's composer Jack Pepper back with another Classique 15.

Very pleased to have you with me.

This is another bite-sized chat to take you inside classical music and offer some practical career top tips.

Now for the 2026-27 season, Classique are welcoming seven new young artists to their latest ambassador programme.

This year they'll help mentor a composer, a vocalist and five instrumentalists, including the 27-year-old Dutch violinist Havik Elders.

She is already one of the fast-rising stars in the European string scene.

Just in 2025, she won the prestigious Antonio Momoni International Prize, following earlier wins with the Henri Marteau and the Leonid Kogan international competitions.

She's an associate artist of the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel in Belgium and artist in residence at the Antwerp Spring Festival.

And it's a big season coming up for her.

Her debut solo album is out on Decca Classics Italy in October, and she has recently debuted with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

We met down the line to talk about the transition from studies to the professional solo concert world and exploring the biggest challenges of being a young artist today.

But we began by talking all things classic.

Here's how Havik got involved.