BBC Young Musician competition reveals finalists

The BBC’s biennial Young Musician competition returns next month with category final highlights broadcast on BBC Four in the week leading up to the final, which will be broadcast on 9 October. You can find a full list of category finalists below.

The category finals were recorded in early July at Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden, in front of category panels chaired by organist and broadcaster Anna Lapwood with musicians across all disciplines including clarinettist Emma Johnson, horn player and BBC Young Musician 2016 finalist Ben Goldscheider, percussionist Paul Philbert and violinist Jennifer Pike.

Pike, who herself became the youngest-ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2002, said: ‘BBC YM was a life-changing experience. I can’t believe it is 20 years ago now!... It’s such a great platform for musicians at the beginning of their careers and was a real stepping stone in enabling me to do what I love all these years. Wishing the very best of luck to this year’s brilliant finalists!’

Saxophonist, broadcaster and 2016 BBC Young Musician finalist Jess Gillam will present the category highlights broadcasts alongside pianist, composer, and producer Alexis Ffrench. They will be joined by presenter Josie d’Arby for the competition Grand Final which will be held tomorrow at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. It will be broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3 next Sunday.

The winner of each category will perform with the BBC Philharmonic led by Mark Wigglesworth for a jury chaired by Lapwood also including conductor Ben Gernon; sitar player, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar; BBC Radio 3’s editor for live music Emma Bloxham and head of classical music at London’s Southbank Centre Toks Dada.

BBC Young Musician has been highlighting the stars of the next generation for 38 years with previous winners inclduing violinist Nicola Benedetti, clarinettist Mark Simpson and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. The competition’s executive producer, Paul Bullock, said: ‘[BBC Young Musician is] a contest that celebrates new talent and many of today’s leading instrumentalists have passed through its doors. Inevitably most of the attention falls on the overall winner and those who reach the Grand Final. But its importance goes deeper – it’s a competition to aspire to and we see musicians return year after year eager, to test themselves.’

The finalists in each category are:

Strings:

• Violinist Aki Blendis, aged 14
• Violinist Clara Sophia Wernig, aged 16
• Violinist Dawid Kasprzak, aged 16
• Violinist Edward Walton, aged 16
• Violist Jaren Ziegler, aged 16

Woodwind

• Clarinettist Alex Buckley, aged 18
• Flautist Isaac Skey, aged 14
• Clarinettist Lucas Dick, aged 17
• Flautist Sofia Patterson- Gutierrez, aged 17
• Saxophonist Thomas Priestly, aged 18

Brass

• Horn player Daniel Hibbert, aged 17
• Trumpet player Florence Wilson-Toy, aged 17
• French horn player Imogen Moorsom, aged 18
• Trumpet player Phoebe Mallinson, aged 16
• Trumpet player Sasha Canter, aged 18

Percussion

• Eric Zhang, aged 15
• George Garnett, aged 18
• Jordan Ashman, aged 17
• Joshua Gearing, aged 17
• Sophie Warner, aged 18

Keyboard

• Dida Condria, aged 19
• Duru Erdogan, aged 18
• Ethan Lock, aged 17
• Firoze Madon, aged 18
• Jacky Zhang, aged 14