The GCYO has a strong and proud history with many leading musicians in Australia and abroad.
Take some time now, to check out the happenings in some of their lives.
Although their stories are different,
they share some important commonalities -
their love for music and
their shared experience at GCYO.
Asher Yan
iw graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium in 2005 majoring in the violin. He is a very versatile musician and has a wealth of performance and recording experiences. In 2002, Asher was awarded the Diploma Associate music Australia (AMusA) of the Australian Music Examinations Board in the subject of violin. His performances have lead him to meet and perform for celebrities such as Ricki-Lee Coulter, John Foreman and the current Governor-General of Australia Quentin Bryce. For the last 7 years Asher has been leader of the Simply Strings Quartet who have performed at over 500 weddings/functions. His performances have also included playing for Gold Coast Arts Centre musicals and Jupiter Casino shows, such as Les Miserables, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Jesus Christ Superstar, Sweeney Todd, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and ABBA MANIA. Asher is currently enjoying his position as strings co-ordinator at Emmanuel College and has been a conductor at the Gold Coast Youth Orchestra since 2007. In 2005 he was also conductor of the Coastal Sounds Big Band. Asher enjoys the lifestyle that follows being a passionate musician and is enthusiastic helping students achieve their best.
The Matthew Armstrong StoryMatthew received an A.(mus)A. on trumpet from AMEB. He attended QUT and received a B.A.(music) and B. Ed. Matthew was also a foundation member of the GCYO Big Band and also played in the Youth Symphony in 1991- 1993. He has been conducting various groups at GCYO since 2003, including: Concert Band, Wind Ensmeble and foundation conductor of Little Big Band. Matthew is well experienced and a valuable asset to GCYO.
The Youth 
Orchestra could be said to have been the ‘baby’ of Norma Goldner, She was active in the Amateur Performing Arts and Light Opera on the Gold Coast, a journalist at The Gold Coast Bulletin, and a founding member of the University of The Third Age on the Gold Coast.
Norma was Conservatorium trained and used to sing with Spotlight Theatrical Company formed in 1955 by Joyce Forbes, and the Gold Coast Little Theatre. Norma moved to the Gold Coast from Brisbane after her marriage to Ray Goldner, also a musician and journalist at The Gold Coast Bulletin. Ray Goldner “whose bass playing complemented his brother’s piano playing perfectly” according to John Dwyer’s article ‘Playback To The Past’ in the Gold Coast Bulletin November 25, 1991. He joined his brother Johnny in a very popular duo that played at Jim Cavill’s Surfers Paradise Hotel in the 1950s and 60s.
The family connection to the Gold Coast Youth Orchestra was completed by nephew Richard Goldner who joined the Youth Orchestra in 1974 to play percussion. Richard pursued a career in music, first playing freelance backing artists like Rolf Harris, Jackie Love and ‘Wickety Wak’. He later played in ‘Streetlife’ then joined his wife Maryanne in her band ‘Nightflight’, a trio heard frequently around the Gold Coast. He moved on to an interest in MIDI Sequencing in his own home studio and undertook a career as an ambulance officer. In 1995 he became one of the first Paramedics in Queensland and now enjoys music as a hobby.