Category finalists announced for BBC Young Musician 2012

The 25 youngsters who will be appearing in the category finals of BBC Young Musician 2012 have been announced. Selected from over 400 auditionees, the musicians will perform in the category finals to be held 5-9 March in Cardiff.

The categories are: keyboard, brass, strings, woodwind and percussion, and there are five musicians in each category final. The winner of each category will then go through to the semi-final on 11 March before just three performers are selected to take part in the BBC Young Musician 2012 Final. The category finals will be broadcast on BBC Four and the semi-final and final will both be broadcast on BBC Two.

Violinist Jennifer Pike, who won the competition in 2002 said: ‘BBC Young Musician was a life-changing experience for me, not only because of the wonderful concert opportunities and recordings that it led to, but also because of the great pleasure I had taking part.’

Past winners, including Jennifer Pike, will be performing an evening of short recitals as part of the Music Nation festival at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on 4 March.

The 25 finalists are:

Keyboard, Monday 5 March, 7pm
Martin Bartlett (15) Piano, Hornchurch, Essex
Adam Boeker (15) Piano, Manchester/Alberta, Canada
Dominic Degavino (16) Piano, Grassmoor, Chesterfield
Victor Lim (17) Piano, Somerset/Malaysia
Yuanfan Yang (15) Piano, Prestwich, Lancs

Brass, Tuesday 6 March, 7pm
Jonathan Bates (16) E flat Tenor Horn, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Christopher Dunn (18) Tuba, London
Alexander Kelly (16) Bass Trombone, Hale, Altrincham
Elizabeth Tocknell (17) French Horn, Church Stretton, Shropshire
Elzbieta Young (16) Trumpet, Blackburn, Lancs

Strings, Wednesday 7 March, 7pm
Cristian Grajner-Desa (17) Violin, Heath and Reach, Bedfordshire
Julia Hwang (16) Violin, Bristol
Juliette Roos (16) Violin, Fetcham, Surrey
Joel Sandelson (17) Cello, London
Laura Van Der Heijden (14) Cello, Forest Row, East Sussex

Woodwind, Thursday 8 March, 7pm
Charlotte Barbour-Condini (15) Recorder, Stoke Newington, London
Jordan Black (18) Clarinet, Swindon, Wiltshire
Charlotte Cox (18) Bassoon, Guildford, Surrey
Lucinda Dunne (17) Saxophone, Stallington Village, Staffordshire
Luke O’Toole (18) Flute, Ormskirk, Lancs

Percussion, Friday 9 March, 7pm
James Larter (17) Percussion, Far Cotton, Northamptonshire
Hyun-gi Lee (15) Percussion, Guildford/Seoul, South Korea
Molly Lopresti (18) Percussion, Totnes, Devon
Peter Rayner (15) Percussion, Howe Green, Essex
Richard Rayner (18) Percussion, Howe Green, Essex

Elizabeth Davis