A teenage harpist is heading off to a prestigious art school in the US after blowing away judges during an audition late last year.

Vivienne Janse van Rensburg, 16, a grade 11 pupil from Northriding, northern Johannesburg, so impressed teachers at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan that she was accepted "straight away".

She had auditioned with three pieces - Dizi's Etude 14, Fantasie for Harp by Saint- Saëns and Scherzetto by Ibert - and bagged a scholarship worth nearly R100 000 a year.

Janse van Rensburg, who started playing the harp at the age of eight, leaves for the US in August for what she calls "a dream come true".

" I want to do with the harp what Andre Rieu does with the violin," she said. ''I want to get into jazz, I want people to know that the harp can also play jazz."

Interlochen Arts Academy is a fine arts boarding school which prepares young musicians for a career in the industry.

Auditions are held annually and the school's selection criteria include academic achievements and talent.

Her proud mother, Ingrid, said: "Getting into Interochen is quite an achievement and it's a great opportunity for her to position herself internationally."

The scholarship will cover 55% of the cost of Janse van Rensburg 's two-year stint at the academy. She hopes to raise the rest of the money with a concert at the Trinity Methodist Church in Linden, Johannesburg, ahead of her departure.

The go-getter has always worked hard to make her dreams come true.

In January she spent two weeks at Brimsdown Primary school in Enfield, London, as part of her job-shadowing requirement for grade 11 pupils - she wanted to be in the UK in a bid to meet her idol, British harpist, Eleanor Turner.

She wrote to Turner and, once in London, spent a weekend with her for intensive training.

''She invited me to her house for lessons after I had found her e-mail on her website and wrote to her telling her that I want to be like her one day," she said.