When Rueben Levi Oddy came home from school one afternoon gesturing wildly at his mother Debbie, saying he wanted "to do this", no-one could have imagined where this would lead.
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"What is 'this'" asked Debbie, gesturing back.
The answer was violin. Reuben had seen his first string quartet at school that day.
Thus began a relationship, an immersion and journey that has seen Rueben scale to the heights of his instrument.
He has crossed the world and language barriers to study with masters of the violin and reached a level few musicians obtain.
After a nine-year hiatus from Australia, Reuben will return home to the South Coast in August for a tour with accompanying pianist Olena Nikulina.
Reuben's story was extraordinary.
Measured and clearly spoken, he erupted with delight remembering his first violin as "awful".
"I think it was $60. A bright candy red Ashton violin," he said.
When a music shop in Batemans Bay had closed down, Debbie had asked Rueben if there was anything he wanted.
Again the answer was "violin".
From Rueben's, and the professional music world's perspective, at 11 he was a very late starter.
"I started violin when I was almost 12, which is about six years too late, they say," he said.
"Especially in Europe, they start when they are about five or six."
However, Reuben got very good, very fast.
From their home in Moruya, Debbie would drive about 1000km a week between violin lessons in Tathra and pre-tertiary music lessons at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.
"Friday midday we would drive to Canberra and I would do chamber music at the pre-tertiary ANU, stay overnight, do Canberra Youth Orchestra in the morning and then drive home," he said.
Reuben finished his HSC via distance education to enable him to focus on violin.
By the time the university offers rolled in, he had made up his mind to study in Europe, more specifically, Germany.
He spent the next year on a gap year learning German. Rueben also took up piano as a prerequisite for studying music in Germany.
"You have to be able to play it," he said.
"It's not like just sitting there and just playing a few chords, they expect you to play Bach and Mozart with two or three voices at the same time."
Amazingly within six months of playing, Rueben had achieved the required level.
A scholarship, in part supported by Moruya Rotary Club and the Rotary network in Germany, enabled him to study at Detmold Academy of Music, where he specialised in German classical music.
Reuben recalled those first years of study as tough, particularly having limited German.
"Coming to Germany with only eight months of learning German [and] sitting in a one and a half hour music analysis lecture was hard," he said.
"From the pictures I knew what he was talking about but I had no idea what he was saying."
It took Rueben five years to become fluent in the language.
He studied under the tutelage of world renowned music professors, and continued beyond university to hone "his technique and interpretation to a fine art".
Reuben collaborated with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and tutored the first violins of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Upper Franconia.
A long way from that candy red violin, these days Rueben played on a loaned violin crafted by esteemed violin maker Alfred Binner.
His bow was made circa 1930 by master bowmaker August Rau.
Not bad for a late starter from Moruya.
Rueben Levi on violin and Olena Nikulina on piano will play Wolumla Memorial Hall Sunday, August 11 and Narooma St Paul's Anglican Church August 10, with more dates to be added shortly.