A Victoria, B.C.-raised violin student won't be playing second fiddle to anyone, after having been declared one of the winners of the Canada Council's Musical Instrument Bank competition.

Twenty-year-old Nikki Chooi, currently studying at the prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has won the use of $4.3 million 1729 Guarneri del Gesí¹ instrument for three years.

The violin is one of 14 instruments, worth a combined total of $28 million and ranging in value from $43,000 (an 1830 Shaw Adam cello bow) to $8 million (a 1696 Bonjour Stradivari cello), loaned to young Canadians through the Musical Instrument Bank.