With the encouragement of her mother, herself a piano teacher, she went to study music in Australia at the age of 10 and entered the Sydney Conservatoire of Music at age 15, where she majored in piano, composition, music history, musical structure and orchestra.
十歲那年，母親勸動了父親，辛苦地湊足了學費，將她送往澳洲，開始她音樂教育的新里程。十五歲那年，郭美貞考入了雪梨音樂院。前三年，她主修鋼琴，兼習作曲、音樂史、音樂結構、聽覺訓練、管弦樂等課程。