About
Clara Moloney is a Year 12 student at Fort Street High School in Sydney. Clara started learning the cello at age four. Clara has been playing in AYO programs since 2024 when she attended her first National Music Camp. One highlight for her was playing Sibelius’ 2nd Symphony under the direction of Maestro Alexander Briger at National Music Camp in 2025.
Outside of AYO, Clara is the recipient of an Arthur Cunningham Scholarship at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Rising Stars program, where she studies with Susan Blake. In 2023, Clara won the Junior section of the NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition and in 2024, she won the Open Age Cello section of the Sydney Eisteddfod and 2nd prize in the PolMusica Competition.
Clara was a finalist in the 2025 John Curro National Youth Concerto Competition, where she performed Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with the Queensland Youth Symphony in Brisbane. Furthermore, in November of 2025, with her String Quartet, Lumina, Clara toured jointly with the Flinders Quartet as part of the Flinders Quartet Mentorship Prize, awarded to Lumina in the 2024 Grand Final of Musica Viva’s Strike a Chord competition. Clara is also a keen participant in the Australian Chamber Orchestra Academy and has performed in masterclasses with Julian Smiles and Liwei Qin.
