Forty Years of BBC Young Musician

The BBC World Service’s coverage of this year’s BBC Proms opens with a concert celebrating 40 years of BBC Young Musician, a national competition spotlighting some of the best young classical musicians in Britain.

It starts with four former winners of the competition, Natalie Clein, Guy Johnston, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Laura van der Hijden performing an arrangement for 4 cellos and orchestra of ‘Violoncellos, vibrez!’, by the Italian composer Giovanni Sollima. Next, another former winner and international star, the Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, with Maurice Ravel’s ‘Tzigane’, a virtuoso showcase for the soloist, inspired by gypsy music. Closing the concert is one of the French composer Camille Saint-Saens’ most beloved pieces, written in 1886: ‘The Carnival of the Animals’, short individual humorous portraits of the best known ‘characters’ from the natural kingdom, from which we hear a selection. The concert is performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Gourlay.

Presenter Georgia Mann is joined by pianist Lucy Parham, the keyboard category winner of BBC Young Musician back in 1984.

Photo: Violinist Nicola Benedetti with the BBC Concert Orchestra Credit: Chris Christodoulou