A recording career could be closer than he thinks for 16-year-old Charles Darwin University (CDU) music student Jordan Van Der Schuit, who has been named one of three successful NT performers at the Australian Idol auditions in Alice Springs.
Auditions for the talent-search program were held in Alice Springs for the first time last week, drawing would-be Idols from as far away as Port Headland and Darwin.
Jordan, and his fellow CDU Certificate II Music students Hannah Morrison, Lucy Hope, Terri Unger, Buma Dede, Nathanael Rothwell and Kenny Glynn-Braun, all auditioned for the program at the Alice Springs Convention Centre.
The students all attend Centralian Senior Secondary College and study music through the VET in Schools program with Lecturer and Alice Springs musician Cain Gilmour. Almost all of the students were recalled to a second audition on Thursday at Ooraminna Homestead, 40-kilometres south of Alice Springs.
Jordan was selected to join Tashka Urban, also from Alice Springs, and Jessica Mauboy from Darwin at the next stage of the Australian Idol series in Sydney later this year.
Jordan has never had a singing lesson, but he became interested in music a couple of years ago and said enrolling to study music at CDU this year had really helped him.
“This year I started playing guitar and writing my own songs. I knew that we’d get the chance to record in the music class and I wanted to record something of my own,” he said.
The Australian Idol judges were impressed with Jordan’s rendition of Everything Burns by Anastacia and Ben Moody, and spurred him on to sing one of his untitled originals.
“They were pretty nice to me,” he said of the judges Kyle Sandilands, Marcia Hines and Mark Holden.
The Alice Springs-born student said he is interested in a career in advertising, but would also like to record an album of original songs.
“My chance is as good as anyone else I guess. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity so Io thought I’d have a crack at it,” Jordan said.
Jordan will be among 100 performers selected through auditions across Australia to attend a music training camp and elimination round for Australian Idol in late June.