After a year of COVID lockdown-related delays, BBC Young Musician has announced the dates of its semi and grand final broadcasts.
The semi and grand finals of BBC Young Musician 2020 will now be shown on BBC Four across one weekend, with the semi final scheduled for Friday 30 April and the grand final the following day. The semi-final was filmed just before the UK lockdown last year, but the broadcast has been delayed so it could coincide with the competition's grand final, which is due to be recorded this month.
Both finals will be presented by organist and conductor Anna Lapwood, with a panel chaired by Saffron Hall's chief executive Angela Dixon. In the semi-final, Dixon is joined by Lisa Tregale, director of the BBC National Orchestra and Choir of Wales; composer John Hardy and double bassist and founder of the Chineke! Orchestra Chi-chi Nwanoku.
In the grand final recording this month, oboist and former BBC Young Musician winner Nicholas Daniel will join the presenting team. Another previous BBC Young Musician winner will be included on this year's grand final judging panel: composer and clarinettist Mark Simpson. He will appear alongside Ryan Bancroft, principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, composer Errollyn Wallen and experimental composer and turntablist Shiva Feshareki.
We spoke to both Anna Lapwood and Errollyn Wallen for recent episodes of the Music to my Ears podcast.
Both the semi and grand finals will be broadcast on BBC Four, with additional coverage of the grand final on BBC Radio 3.
This year's semi-finalists include French horn player Annemarie Federle, violinist Coco Tomita, oboist Ewan Millar, percussionist Fang Zhang and pianist Thomas Luke.
The semi-final of BBC Young Musician will be broadcast on Friday 30 April on BBC Four, followed shortly after by the grand final on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3 on Saturday 1 May.