BBC Young Musician is a televised national

music competition A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, soloists, composers, conductors and musicologists. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets. Exampl ...

broadcast

biennially Biennial means (an event) lasting for two years or occurring every two years. The related term biennium is used in reference to a period of two years. In particular, it can refer to: * Biennial plant, a plant which blooms in its second year and th ...

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced t ...

and

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The st ...

. Originally BBC Young Musician of the Year, its name was changed in 2010. The competition, a former member of the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY), is open to UK-resident

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, keyboard,

string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

and

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and ...

players, who are eighteen years of age or under on 1 January in the relevant year.

History

The competition was established in 1978 by Humphrey Burton, Walter Todds and Roy Tipping, former members of the BBC Television Music Department.

Michael Hext Michael Hext (born c.1961) is a trombonist in the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. In 1978 he was the inaugural winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. Career Michael Hext was educated at Bedford Modern School. In 1978, ...

, a trombonist, was the inaugural winner. In 1994, the percussion category was added, alongside the existing keyboard, string, brass and woodwind categories. The competition has five stages: regional auditions, category auditions, category finals, semi-finals and the final. The biennial competition is managed and produced by BBC Cymru Wales. To date, there have been 22 winners, the youngest being 12-year-old

Peter Moore Peter or Pete Moore may refer to: Politicians *Peter Moore (British politician) (1753–1828), English civil servant of the East India Company and politician *Peter Moore (Queensland politician) (born 1938), member of the Queensland Legislative As ...

. In 2014, the BBC Young Musician Jazz Award was introduced;

Alexander Bone Alexander Bone is a British saxophonist, record producer and composer. In March 2014, he won the inaugural BBC Young Musician - Jazz Award, where he performed with the Gwilym Simcock Trio. He has performed as a soloist twice on the BBC Proms ...

, a saxophonist, was the inaugural winner. As a result of the success of the competition, the

Eurovision Young Musicians The Eurovision Young Musicians (), often shortened to EYM, or Young Musicians, is a biennial classical music competition for European musicians that are aged between 12 and 21. It is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and broadcast ...

competition was initiated in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., Un ...

. The first edition was broadcast live from Manchester's Free Trade Hall. The presenter was Humphrey Burton and the producer was Roy Tipping. The winner of BBC Young Musician often went on to represent the

United Kingdom in the Eurovision Young Musicians The United Kingdom has participated in the biennial classical music competition Eurovision Young Musicians sixteen times since its debut in 1982, most recently taking part in after a 8-year absence. The United Kingdom hosted the inaugural contes ...

. The competition celebrated its 30th anniversary in May 2008 with a documentary narrated by

Gethin Jones Gethin Clifford Jones (born 12 February 1978) is a Welsh television presenter. He was an active rugby union player while at Manchester Metropolitan University and, after graduation, he began his television career on Welsh language channel S4C ...

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

. BBC Four's documentary ''BBC Young Musician: Forty Years Young'' was aired on 3 April 2018. To celebrate the 40th anniversary, the first BBC Young Musician Prom was held at the Royal Albert Hall and broadcast live on 15 July 2018. Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill, the concert featured performances from past winners and finalists alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Andrew Gourlay. The 2020 competition was affected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, after proceeding as normal up to and including the filming of the semi-final. The five category finals were broadcast in May and June 2020, with broadcast of the semi-final and recording of the final postponed, at first until the autumn, and then into 2021. The Jazz Award final was broadcast as planned on 22 November 2020, having been recorded at Cadogan Hall in the absence of an audience. The grand final was recorded in April 2021 – also without an audience – and broadcast on 2 May, preceded on 30 April by the delayed broadcast of the semi-final. The 2022 contest was deferred from spring to early autumn and was broadcast in October; the semi-final stage of the competition (introduced in 2010) was discontinued.

Broadcast

Regional heats were televised in 1978; a round before the category final was aired until 1994, and again in 2002 and 2004. From 1978 to 1984, all programmes were broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...

until it was moved to

in 1986; however from 2002 to 2012, the heats were moved to

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

, with only the final aired on BBC Two. In 2010, highlights of the new semi-final stage were also broadcast on BBC Two. In 2014, all stages of the competition moved to BBC Four, and the category finals and the grand final were broadcast on

. For the 2018 competition, Radio 3 broadcast a 30-minute concert starring each competitor in the week before their category final aired.

Hosts

The following have hosted stages of the competition:

Classical Award

* Humphrey Burton (1978–1992) * Ernest Lush (1978) * Jane Glover (1986, 1988) *

J Mervyn Williams J, or j, is the tenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is English alpha ...

(1990) * Edward Gregson (1990 final) * Paul Daniel (1992 final) * Sarah Greene (1994) * Christopher Warren-Green (1996) * Sarah Walker (1996) *

Stephanie Hughes Stephanie is a female name that comes from the Greek name Στέφανος (Stephanos) meaning "crown". The male form is Stephen. Forms of Stephanie in other languages include the German "Stefanie", the Italian, Czech, Polish, and Russian ...

(1998–2004) * Alistair Appleton (2004) * Howard Goodall (2006, 2010 final) *

(2008) * Aled Jones (2008) * Nicola Loud (2008) * Clemency Burton-Hill (2010–12, 2014 final, 2016, 2018 final) * Josie D'Arby (2012, 2016 final, 2018, 2020, 2022 final) * Alison Balsom (2014, 2016, 2018 final) *

Miloš Karadaglić Miloš Karadaglić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милош Карадаглић, born 23 April 1983), sometimes known just by his mononym Miloš, is a classical guitarist and Deutsche Grammophon/ Mercury Classics recording artist from Montenegro. Biograph ...

(2014) * Anna Lapwood (2020) * Jess Gillam (2020 final, 2022) * Alexis Ffrench (2022)

Jazz Award

* Josie D'Arby (2014, 2016, 2018) * Soweto Kinch (2014) * Joe Stilgoe (2016) * YolanDa Brown (2018, 2020) * Jamz Supernova (2022) * Huw Stephens (2022)

Related awards

BBC Young Dancer

A competitive dance version, BBC Young Dancer, was launched in October 2014 and first awarded in May 2015.

BBC Young Jazz Musician

A separate competition for a Jazz Award was first held during the 2014 season, with the final broadcast on BBC Four in the week after the classical final. In 2016, the Jazz Award final was episode 7 of the 8-part BBC Four series, broadcast two days before the classical final. In 2018, the jazz competition had an upper age limit of 21 and the final was recorded for BBC Four in November as part of the London Jazz Festival; it was broadcast on 25 November, six months after the main final.

Winners

Classical Award

Jazz Award

Past finalists

;Key

1970s

1978

1980s

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990s

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000s

2000

2002

2004

Finals for the 2004 competition took place on 2 May at the Usher Hall,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and were televised on

. The trophy used for this year's competition was designed by John Rocha at Waterford Crystal.

2006

The 2006 finals were held at The Sage Gateshead on 20 May 2006. The adjudicators for this competition were

Marin Alsop Marin Alsop ( �mɛər.ɪn ˈæːl.sɑːp born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate o ...

, Carlos Bonell, Peter Sadlo, Thea King,

Sergei Nakariakov Sergei Mikhailovich Nakariakov (russian: Серге́й Михайлович Накаряков; ; born May 10, 1977, in Gorky) is a Russian- Israeli virtuoso trumpeter residing in Paris, France, who came to prominence in the late 1990s. He ...

, Angela Hewitt and Kathryn McDowell. The overall number of finalists was significantly smaller for this competition.

2008

The 2008 finals took place at the Wales Millennium Centre in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

on 10 and 11 May 2008. In celebration of thirty years of the competition broadcasting, the performances lasted for two days.

2010s

2010

2012

2014

=Classical Award

=Jazz Award

2016

=Classical Award

=Jazz Award

2018

=Classical Award

= The 2018 finals were held at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on 13 May 2018. The judges were Kerry Andrew (chair), Alpesh Chauhan, Natalie Clein, John Harle and

Sunwook Kim Sunwook Kim (born 1988 in Seoul) is a South Korean pianist living in London. He came to international recognition when he won the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006. Early life Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea on 22 A ...

=Jazz Award

2020s

2020–21

=Classical Award

=Jazz Award

2022

=Classical Award

=Jazz Award

Footnotes

:A. : Extended information used where available.

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

*
European Union of Music Competitions for Youth
{{DEFAULTSORT:BBC Young Musician of the Year British biennial events Music competitions in the United Kingdom BBC Cymru Wales television shows British television specials BBC Radio 3 programmes Young Musician Classical music television series Youth music competitions Awards established in 1978 Early career awards 1978 establishments in the United Kingdom Music television specials