BBC Young Musician is a televised national music competition broadcast biennially on BBC Television and BBC Radio 3. 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, keyboard, string, brass and woodwind 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, 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. In 2014, the BBC Young Musician Jazz Award was introduced; Alexander Bone, a saxophonist, was the inaugural winner. As a result of the success of the competition, the Eurovision Young Musicians competition was initiated in 1982. 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. For the tenth edition of the competition in 1996, a series of recitals given by past finalists were broadcast on BBC Two in a late-night timeslot. The competition celebrated its 30th anniversary in May 2008 with a documentary narrated by Gethin Jones on BBC Two and with former participants speaking to 2006 winner Mark Simpson for Young Musicians Grown Old on BBC Radio 4. 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, 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 competition was deferred from spring to early autumn and was broadcast in October; the semi-final stage of the competition (introduced in 2010) was discontinued for that year. For the 2024 competition, a new format was introduced: category finals were replaced by two quarter-finals each featuring six musicians. A total of six musicians progress to the semi-final, and then three to the grand final.

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 until it was moved to BBC Two in 1986; however from 2002 to 2012, the majority of the competition rounds were moved to BBC Four, with only a highlights/preview show (in 2002 and 2004) and the final aired on BBC Two. Previously, additional programmes were broadcast as part of each competition alongside coverage in some later years on BBC Radio 3. 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 BBC Radio 3. For the 2018 competition, Radio 3 broadcast a 30-minute concert starring each competitor in the week before their category final aired. For 2024, the grand final will be broadcast on BBC Two for the first time since 2012 in the form of highlights of the concerto performances, whilst the full concert programme is to be aired on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3.

Hosts

The following have hosted stages of the competition:

Classical Award

Jazz Award

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

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 and were televised on BBC Two. 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, Carlos Bonell, Peter Sadlo, Thea King, Sergei Nakariakov, Angela Hewitt and Kathryn McDowell. The semi-finalists that did not progress were, by category:

2008

The 2008 finals took place at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff 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.

Jazz Award

2020s

2020–21

Classical Award

Jazz Award

2022

Classical Award

Jazz Award

2024

Classical Award

Judging every televised round of this year's competition are trumpeter Alison Balsom, pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench, and multi-instrumentalist and broadcaster Hannah Catherine Jones. The two quarter finals were won by Jamaal Kashim and Shlomi Shahaf respectively, with Hugo Svedberg, Jacky Zhang and Ryan Wang advancing to the semi-final as "wildcards". Zang, Wang and Shahaf were announced as the finalists.

Jazz Award