BBC Young Musician

The Royal College of Music, where several of the winners studied.

The BBC Young Musician of the Year is a televised competition, broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Four every two years and hosted by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The competition is designed for British percussion, keyboard, string, brass and woodwind players, all of whom must be eighteen years of age or under.

The competition was established in 1978 by Humphrey Burton and Walter Todds (deceased), both of whom are former members of the BBC Television's Music Department. In 1994, the use of percussion instruments was permitted, alongside the existing keyboard, string, brass and woodwind categories, and is still in use today. Since its introduction, the allowance of percussion instruments has increased interest of the competition among young people. Currently, the competition has five stages, which consist of regional auditions, regional finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final, which this year, will be hosted at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on 10 May, 2008.

As a result of the success of the competition, the Eurovision Young Musicians competition was initiated in 1982.

Winners

Year	Name	Instrument	Place of study	Winning age	Notes
1978	Michael Hext	Trombone	Royal College of Music	17	Now has an orchestral career, with occasional solo performances.
1980	Nicholas Daniel	Oboe	Royal Academy of Music	18	Founded the Haffner Wind Ensemble an can be seen performing The Proms'.
1982	Anna Markland	Piano	Chethams School, Oxford University, Royal Academy of Music	18	Has since developed a reputation as a teacher, adjudicator and singer.
1984	Emma Johnson	Clarinet	Cambridge University	18	Now a solo clarinettist with a repertoire of over 40 concertos.
1986	Alan Brind	Violin	Royal Academy of Music	17	Has since lead the European Union Youth Orchestra and won the Young Musician of the Year award.
1988	David Pyatt	Horn	Cambridge University	14	Youngest winner of the award, performed at numerous BBC Proms.
1990	Nicola Loud	Violin	Royal Academy of Music, Julliard School	15	Has appeared on multiple famous British orchestras and several abroad.
1992	Freddy Kempf	Piano	Royal Academy of Music, University of London	14	Became the youngest person at the time to win the award, has since released numerous recital discs of famous musical people, including Beethoven and Chopin.
1994	Natalie Clein	Cello	Royal College of Music, Heinrich Schiff	15	Became the first British winner of the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians, performs on several well-known British orchestras.
1996	Rafal Zambrzycki Payne	Violin	Yehudi Menuhin School, Royal Northern College of Music, Herbert von Karajan Centre	18	Won second prize at the Luxemburg International Violin Competition, performs in orchestras in Europe, the United States, South Africa, The Middle East and Zimbabwe.
1998	Adrian Spillett	Percussion	Royal Northern College of Music	19	Became the first percussionist to win the award, now performs both solo and in a percussion quartet across the United Kingdom.
2000	Guy Johnston	Cello	Chetham's School of Music, Eastman School of Music	18	A finalist at the Bridgewater Hall, a performance at the Royal Albert Hall, becoming the youngest soloist to appear on the first night of The Proms.
2002	Jennifer Pike	Violin	Chetham's School of Music	12	The overall youngest winner of the award, now appears as a soloist with British orchestras and performed at other BBC events.
2004	Nicola Benedetti	Violin	Yehudi Menuhin School	16	Performed with the BBC concert orchestra and recorded her debut album with Daniel Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra.
2006	Mark Simpson	Clarinet	Royal Northern College of Music	18	Now performs as the Principal Clarinet of the National Youth Orchestra, with current aspirations to be a music composer.

Finalists

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.

Name	Instrument	Performance	Notes
Mark Simpson	Clarinet	Clarinet Concerto (Nielsen)	Winner of the 2006 competition, originally played the keyboard and recorder.
Cordelia Williams	Piano	Piano Concerto No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)	Began piano lessons at three years of age, now studies at Chetham's School of Music.
David Massey	Guitar	Fantasia para un Gentilhombre	Began guitar lesson at eight years old at the Mid Herts Music Centre, with current aspirations for a career involving music.
Toby Kearney	Percussion	Veni, Veni, Emmanuel	Now a member of the Royal Northern College of Music. His childhood environment encouraged him to be involved in music.
Huw Morgan	Trumpet	Trumpet Concerto (Tomasi)	Principal trumpet of the National Youth Orchestra, began learning piano and other instruments at five years of age.

2004

Name	Instrument/Category
Otis Beasley	Keyboard.
Lucy Beeson	Percussion.
Nicola Benedetti	Violin.
Elizabeth Chell	Horn.
Sijie Chen	Violin.
Adam Clifford	Percussion.
Andrea Crossley	Percussion.