Cuban violinist sponsored to come to Nova Scotia to train

People are throwing around the word violin prodigy when it comes to Alison Enriquez.

The young Cuban violinist will soon call Nova Scotia home and she hopes the province's finest violin teachers can help her continue to grow as a musician.

Enriquezperformed in the gym at Armbrae Academy in HalifaxThursday night atan event to help fundraisemoney forher education fund.

Sheis part of the LosPrimosproject, an initiative started by NovaScotianmusician JeffGoodspeed to connect Cuba and Nova Scotiathrough music.

He has brought Cuban students here before on exchange trips, but this is different.

"This will be the first time anybody (from the LosPrimosproject) has come here to study, it's going to be great ," said Goodspeed.

While other teenagers are downloading the latest Justin Bieber tunes, Enriquez embraces classical composers, memorizing the pieces with her photographic memory note for note.

"My mind goes to the history of the composer," she said.

Just 14, Enriquezimmerses herself in her musicwithdaily practice and studying.

'Stop practicing and put the violin down'

She has only been playing for seven years and she knows there'salotof work still to be done to keep improvingand she'll do that withhelp from her new NovaScotianmusical friends.

"It's already exciting,"she said.

Enriquezwill start at the private school in September and after school she'llhead to Dalhousie University's music department where she will study with highly regarded professor Philippe Djokic.

She's being mentored by Shimon Walt, a member of Symphony Nova Scotia, and she stayed at his placeduring Monday night'sblizzard.

"I had to tell her at midnight to stop practising and put the violin down," said Walt.