WAAPA's music students rehearse for many hours before their performances.
Studying at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts is demanding.
There are long days and challenging schedules for teaching and performance.
And all these hours of dedication can impact on your ability to support yourself through a casual or part-time job.
That means students can struggle financially.
Because apart from the basics of food, accommodation and tuition fees, they also incur incidental costs for things like ballet shoes or musical instruments and repairs.
This might make a great rags-to-riches backstory when they achieve global fame in their performance discipline.
But it may not be too much fun getting there.
It's a different kind of performance anxiety.
Life-changing scholarships
WAAPA recognised this dilemma some time ago and embarked on a campaign to appeal to the generosity of people through donations and other fund raising.
As a result, a number of high achievers are now able to make the best of their talent through a range of excellence scholarships.
Those scholarships are due to individual donors or from Edith Cowan University, the home of WAAPA.
They enable talented students from all kinds of backgrounds to get into WAAPA.
And they help to sustain students so they can experience specialised training of the highest order and ultimately realise their artistic dreams.
Let's meet two students who received scholarships.
Rio Haigh
Rio is a Bachelor of Music student at WAAPA. He was a recipient of the Greg Benjamin WAAPA Music Entrance Scholarship.
Some of the best experiences of being a musician, such as recording and touring, are the most challenging endeavours to support financially. But this scholarship has enabled me to achieve things in my career much earlier than I would have expected to be able to, and on a larger scale.
Tyren Maclou
Tyren is a Bachelor of Arts (Acting) student at WAAPA. He was a recipient of a WAAPA Scholarship for Excellence.
Receiving this scholarship has not only eased the financial burden of my education, but it has also given me a tremendous amount of motivation and encouragement to continue pursuing my academic and personal aspirations. I am excited to see where this journey takes me.
Find out more about ECU's diverse range of scholarships