appear as the featured soloist in a City Hall concert.

The talented young musician, who has just sat the Grade 8 examination in piano for the Associated Boards of Music, will play music by Bach, Chopin and Beethoven when she takes centre stage at the annual Suzuki Association concert this Sunday.

But the Bermuda High School student not only takes this daunting prospect in stride -- she is also a member of the Suzuki Academy senior violin group and, along with fellow students Hywell Brown, Qian Dickinson, Jessica Lightbourne, Nicola Francis and Julie Perry, will play a selection of music by Vivaldi, Saint-Saens and Shostakovich in the upcoming recital.

In spite of her obvious talent, Mandy has no plans to become a professional musician.

"I think I would like to be an accountant. I want to keep my music going, but not as a main profession,'' she says.

Her mother, Mrs. Marguerite Wong, first became aware of the revolutionary Suzuki teaching method when her daughter was just a year-old baby.

"I saw a programme about it on TV and then found out that Marlene Campbell was teaching it here. But she thought Mandy was just a bit young, so I had her listen to the tapes with me and she actually started lessons when she was four,'' she explains.

Mrs. Wong says there was never any particular thoughts about Mandy's talent.

"We wanted to get involved in the whole Suzuki procedure for the other benefits that could be derived. It's a wonderful way of building self-confidence self-esteem and self-discipline, and to develop the ability to concentrate.'' Mandy has been following a punishing schedule of rehearsal for Sunday's concert. Her piano and violin practice has to be fitted in around academic studies, but luckily, she considers her music as a form of recreation.

"It's a tall order but Mandy has coped with it all magnificently,'' says her teacher, Mrs. Anne Brown of the Dunbarton School of Music.

"She is extremely dedicated and the fact that she's doing the violin as well means that she'll be on stage the entire time. It's a tremendous feat to pull this off,'' she enthuses.

Together with Mandy's other piano teacher, Mrs. Jane Farge, they have been working on the concert repertoire since last October.

"They've hit it off tremendously,'' says Mrs. Brown of this latest musical alliance. "Mandy is so very receptive. She picks up and puts into force whatever you show her.'' Somehow, besides all this, Mandy also finds time to play as a member of the Bermuda Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bermuda High School's Orchestra and String Group and she even acts as assistant organist at St. Michael's Church.

Included in the awards that this gifted teenager has already won are the 1990 and 1992 Bermuda Festival of Performing Arts Trophies for Outstanding Performance and the 1991 BHS Ruth Dill Memorial Scholarship for Music.

The recital, presented by the Bermuda Suzuki Association, takes place at City Hall on Sunday, May 16 at 3 p.m. Tickets at $12 (students and senior citizens $8) are available from Opus 1 on Reid Street.

PIANO PRODIGY -- Thirteen year-old Mandy Wong will be the principal soloist at this weekend's Bermuda Suzuki Association concert at City Hall.