With just one place in this year’s semi-final left to play for, the focus is on strings with three violinists, a cellist and a harpist competing in the last of the BBC Young Musician 2020 category finals. Organist and conductor Anna Lapwood introduces highlights of the strings final, which was filmed at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff before the lockdown. Anna is joined by acclaimed British violinist Matthew Trusler to review each of the performances.
The competitors are violinists Mio Takahashi, Ilai Avni and Coco Tomita, who are all 18, cellist Ellen Baumring-Gledhill, who is also 18, and 17-year-old harpist Huw Boucher. They perform works by composers including Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Kreisler.
To win the category and progress to the semi-final, they will need to impress an expert jury. Internationally acclaimed violinist Fenella Humphreys and harpist Stephen Fitzpatrick, whose career has seen him perform with some of the world’s leading orchestras, join Angela Dixon, chief executive of Saffron Hall and chair of this year’s judging panels. Saxophonist Jess Gillam returns to profile one of the UK’s most important institutions for young musicians - the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
The winner from this strings final will join the winners from the keyboard, woodwind, brass and percussion categories as they take their place in the competition’s semi-final,
due to be broadcast later in the year together with the grand final.
As well as the highlights programmes on BBC Four, you can watch all of the category finals in full on the BBC iPlayer, presented by Josie d’Arby.
