The 25 youngsters who will be appearing in the category finals of BBC Young Musician 2012 have been announced. Selected from over 400 auditionees, the musicians will perform in the category finals to be held 5-9 March in Cardiff.
The categories are: keyboard, brass, strings, woodwind and percussion, and there are five musicians in each category final. The winner of each category will then go through to the semi-final on 11 March before just three performers are selected to take part in the BBC Young Musician 2012 Final. The category finals will be broadcast on BBC Four and the semi-final and final will both be broadcast on BBC Two.
Violinist Jennifer Pike, who won the competition in 2002 said: ‘BBC Young Musician was a life-changing experience for me, not only because of the wonderful concert opportunities and recordings that it led to, but also because of the great pleasure I had taking part.’
Past winners, including Jennifer Pike, will be performing an evening of short recitals as part of the Music Nation festival at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on 4 March.
The 25 finalists are:
Keyboard, Monday 5 March, 7pm Martin Bartlett (15) Piano, Hornchurch, Essex Adam Boeker (15) Piano, Manchester/Alberta, Canada Dominic Degavino (16) Piano, Grassmoor, Chesterfield Victor Lim (17) Piano, Somerset/Malaysia Yuanfan Yang (15) Piano, Prestwich, Lancs
Brass, Tuesday 6 March, 7pm Jonathan Bates (16) E flat Tenor Horn, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire Christopher Dunn (18) Tuba, London Alexander Kelly (16) Bass Trombone, Hale, Altrincham Elizabeth Tocknell (17) French Horn, Church Stretton, Shropshire Elzbieta Young (16) Trumpet, Blackburn, Lancs
Strings, Wednesday 7 March, 7pm Cristian Grajner-Desa (17) Violin, Heath and Reach, Bedfordshire Julia Hwang (16) Violin, Bristol Juliette Roos (16) Violin, Fetcham, Surrey Joel Sandelson (17) Cello, London Laura Van Der Heijden (14) Cello, Forest Row, East Sussex
Woodwind, Thursday 8 March, 7pm Charlotte Barbour-Condini (15) Recorder, Stoke Newington, London Jordan Black (18) Clarinet, Swindon, Wiltshire Charlotte Cox (18) Bassoon, Guildford, Surrey Lucinda Dunne (17) Saxophone, Stallington Village, Staffordshire Luke O’Toole (18) Flute, Ormskirk, Lancs
Percussion, Friday 9 March, 7pm James Larter (17) Percussion, Far Cotton, Northamptonshire Hyun-gi Lee (15) Percussion, Guildford/Seoul, South Korea Molly Lopresti (18) Percussion, Totnes, Devon Peter Rayner (15) Percussion, Howe Green, Essex Richard Rayner (18) Percussion, Howe Green, Essex
Elizabeth Davis