Looking for young talent - BBC Young Musician 2014

BBC Young Musician has launched its search for young musical talent for the 2014 competition which culminates in a final at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh on 18 May 2014. In addition to the existing classical music competition is the new BBC Young Musician Jazz Award, which will have its final at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on 8 March 2014. It has also been announced the Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti will become an ambassador for the competition. Benedetti won BBC Young Musician in 2004 and is one of the hightest profile musicians to emerge from the competition in recent years. This list of former winners and finalists is pretty impressive and includes Thomas Ades, Alison Balsom, Natalie Clein, Michael Collins, Nicholas Daniel, Benjamin Grosvenor, Stephen Hough, Emma Johnson, Guy Johnston, Freddy Kempf, Leon McCawley, Lucy Parham, Jennifer Pike, Tom Poster, David Pyatt and Paul Watkins.

More than 400 young classically trained instrumentalists entered the competition in 2012 and it is anticipated that numbers will increase in 2014, particularly with the introduction of the jazz award.  To be eligible to enter, you music be Grade 8 Standard or above, 18 years old or younger on 1 January 2014 and a resident of the UK (including Channel Islands and the Isle of Man). Regional auditions take place in September and October 2013 in Cardiff, Manchester, Gateshead, Newcastle, Belfast and London. Category auditions take place in Cardiff, 150 candidates from the regional auditions will be invited to take part. Category finals (brass, keyboard, percussion, strings, woodwind) take place on 3 - 7 March 2014 at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Five performers per category will perform in front of an audience and adjudicators, these finals will be broadcast on BBC Four. The semi-final will also be broadcast on BBC Four as will the final, which will also be on Radio 3.

For further information see the BBC website.

Elsewhere on this blog:

• Britten & Shostakovich violin concertos - CD review
• Weber - Der Freischutz - CD review
• Wagner songs at the London Song Festival
• Arensky Chamber Orchestra
• Cambridge Handel Opera - Atalanta
• Wolf - Das Italienisches Liederbuch - CD review
• An encounter with Stephen Barlow
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