Six gifted young musicians have been selected as this year’s Radio 3 New Generation Artists. The new intake includes pianist Benjamin Grosvenor who, as an 11 year-old, stunned TV viewers in 2004 with his performance at the final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, won by violinist Nicola Benedetti.
Grosvenor will join fellow Brit, the tenor Ben Johnson, on the two-year scheme which gives up-and-coming performers the chance to play and record with the BBC orchestras, as well as appear in concerts broadcast on Radio 3.
Violinists Alexandra Soumm and Veronika Eberle, cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and the Escher String Quartet make up the rest of this year’s classical musicians; saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings has been named as the jazz artist.
‘[We look for] a certain maturity, both in terms of their musical personality and also in terms of what they’ve already done,’ explained Adam Gatehouse, editor of live music on Radio 3, about the scheme last year. ‘We’re also looking for people who have a really individual voice, people who really make you sit up and listen.’