The 23-year-old practices for three to four hours every day, and has been playing since she was in year three at Maitland Public School (MPS).

Ms Matthews credits a great deal of her passion and skill to her MPS music teacher, John Gray.

"He was fantastic, I 100 per cent wouldn't be doing what I'm doing without him and his help," she said.

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After a couple of years learning at school, Ms Matthews joined the Hunter Wind Ensemble, and once she reached high school even toured the United States with them.

It was around this time she realised she'd like to pursue music as a career.

"Up until that point I just played in band because it was fun, I remember being forced to practice by my mum - and I'm glad she did," she said.

Throughout high school Ms Matthews ended up spending more and more time in Sydney, playing with the Sydney Orchestra and the Australian Youth Orchestra programs.

At the end of 2021, Ms Matthews graduated with her bachelor's degree from the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, and is now home in East Maitland for a little while before jetting off to Europe.

"I applied to audition for a bunch of schools in Europe; in the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland," she said.

"All of them were online auditions except for the Sibelius Academy in Finland, so I went over and did a live audition in May."

About seven weeks ago Ms Matthews found out she was accepted to the Sibelius Academy at UniArts, Helsinki to complete her master's degree, and she leaves this weekend.

"I didn't expect it at all, it's happening very fast," she said. She has just returned home after playing with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and said one of the best parts of being a musician is working and collaborating with other people.

As she prepares to head to Finland, there is a lot to look forward to.

"The brief time I was in Finland, I really enjoyed being surrounded by the language, it was the first time I've been to a non English speaking country so I'm trying to learn the language," she said.

"They also just have a really nice country, it's supposedly the happiest country in the world - but I don't know how they measure that."

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