Young Musician of the Year

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The title is a complete misnomer as its only held every other year, but "Young Musician of the 24 Months" sounds rubbish. The instrumental portion of the BBC's brace of high-brow musical contests (this runs in even numbered years, Cardiff Singer of the World in odd numbered) consists of a series of category finals for Brass, Woodwind, Keyboards, Strings and (since 1994) Percussion, with the winners progressing to the Concerto Final where they play with a full orchestra, invariably prompting letters to the Radio Times asking rhetorically how you judge a violinist against a percussionist anyway. The champion goes on to the Eurovision Young Musicians competition, where they're beaten by the Austrian contender.

In each category final, the competitors perform a solo piece, or a concerto - a work that spotlights their solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. The category winners progress to the gala final. This format was altered slightly from 2010 until 2020, with a semi-final stage between the category finals and the gala final, which reduced the field from five to three.

A Jazz award was inaugrated in 2014:

The contest was established in 1978 by BBC Music employees Humphrey Burton and Walter Todds.

Regional heats were shown in 1978; a round before the category final was shown until 1994, and again in 2002 and 2004. Until 2000, all programmes were shown on BBC2; since 2002, the heats have been shown on digital channel BBC4, with only the final going out on BBC2.

In 2010, with the introduction of a new semi-final stage, the contest got a little more mainstream coverage with highlights of the semi-final joining the final on BBC2. By 2014, the pendulum had swung highbrow: the television contest was stuck on BBC4, but all the category finals and the grand final were broadcast on Radio 3. For 2018, Radio 3 broadcast a 30-minute concert starring each competitor in the week before their category heat aired.

The 2020 contest was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Category finals aired in May 2020, as originally planned. The semi-final had been taped in March, but was held over until the live final could be staged - and that wasn't until May 2021. The 2022 contest was deferred from spring to early autumn, and abolished the semi-final.

BBC programme page

Wikipedia entry

Eurovision Young Musicians

Weaver's Week review (2008)