BBC Young Musician 2016 - Category Final: Keyboard

The UK’s leading contest for young classical musicians, BBC Young Musician 2016, launches with the Keyboard Category Final.

Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill and trumpeter Alison Balsom, five young musicians battle it out to win their Category Final and go through to the Semi-Final (broadcast on BBC Four on Saturday 7 May). The Keyboard Category finalists are: pianists Jackie Campbell (15), Tomoka Kan (17), Harvey Lin (13), Julian Trevelyan (17) and Yuanfan Yang (19). The Keyboard Category Adjudicators are Leon McCawley and Llŷr Williams, alongside Chair of the Jury, Dobrinka Tabakova.

The Category Finals were recorded at the Dora Stoutzker Hall, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. The Final of BBC Young Musician will take place on Sunday 15 May 2016 at the Barbican, London, and will be broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3. 

Now in its 38th year, BBC Young Musician is a part of the BBC’s ongoing commitment to supporting and providing a platform for new and emerging talent. Since its first outing in 1978 the competition has established an enviable reputation for finding outstanding new talent. Seventeen-year-old pianist Martin James Bartlett was awarded the title BBC Young Musician 2014 and took his place alongside a star-studded list of former winners and finalists that includes Thomas Adès, Alison Balsom, Thomas Carroll, 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.

Violinist and former BBC Young Musician Nicola Benedetti continues in her role as Ambassador in 2016, mentoring the three finalists in the run-up to the Final.

Following its successful launch in 2014, the BBC Young Musician Jazz Award returns in 2016, running alongside the established classical music format and comprising two audition stages followed by a final. The Final will be broadcast on BBC Four on Friday 13 May.

Publicity contact: MC4