The search for the next BBC Young Musician has launched and for the first time the competition will also include a Jazz Award.
Violinist Nicola Benedetti, a former winner of BBC Young Musician, is to be an ambassador for the competition.
The Jazz competition will see young hopefuls perform in two audition stages before the final on 8 March 2014, which will be held at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Applications for the Jazz Award will open on 1 August 2013 and the closing date is 18 October 2013.
The format for the five classical competitions – Brass, Keyboard, Percussion, Strings and Woodwind – is the same as in previous years. Competitors will have to get through two audition stages before the category finals and semi-finals at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The final for the 2014 competition will be held in Usher Hall in Edinburgh.
Applications are now open for the classical competition and the closing date is 26 July 2013.
Nicola Benedetti said: ‘I’m hugely excited to be returning to the familiar environment of the BBC Young Musician, which holds such extraordinary memories for me. Most exciting for me will be to hear new young musicians perform.’
BBC Young Musician 2012 was won by cellist Laura van der Heijden who said: ‘BBC Young Musician has changed my life, me as a musician and as a person. It has given me the most unbelievable start to me career! Immediately after the final I started to have new expectations of myself.’
The final stages of the competition will broadcast on BBC Four and Radio 3.
Audition information
Regional auditions
Cardiff: 23-27 Sept
Manchester: 30 Sept – 4 Oct
Newcastle Gateshead: 8 Oct
Glasgow: 9-10 Oct
Belfast: 11 Oct
London: 14-18 Oct; 23-24 Oct
Category auditions will take place at BBC Hoddinott Hall and Grace Williams Studio, Cardiff Bay.
For more information, visit the BBC Young Musician website.