16-year-old viola player Jaren Ziegler, from London, has won the Strings Final of BBC Young Musician 2022 and will progress through to the Grand Final of the competition. He is the first finalist to be announced as part of the 2022 edition of the contest.
The BBC Young Musician 2022 Strings Final was recorded in early July at Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden, Essex. Highlights were broadcast on BBC Four this evening (Sunday 2 October). The other strings finalists were violinists Aki Blendis (14); Clara Sophia Wernig (16); Dawid Kasprzak (16); and Edward Walton (16).
The expert panel of judges for the Strings Final included two of the UK’s most respected soloists in the category: viola player Philip Dukes, and violinist Jennifer Pike – herself the BBC Young Musician winner in 2002. They joined organist, director of music at Pembroke College, and broadcaster Anna Lapwood, chair of all the BBC Young Musician 2022 Category Final judging panels.
Hour-long programmes of highlights from each Category Final will be broadcast on BBC Four over a week: Strings today, Woodwind on Monday 3 October, Brass on Tuesday 4 October, Percussion on Wednesday 5 October, and Keyboard on Thursday 6 October. They are introduced by trailblazing saxophonist and broadcaster Jess Gillam – a competition finalist herself in 2016 and BBC Radio 3 presenter – and classical soul pianist, composer, and producer Alexis Ffrench – making his TV presenting debut. There is also complementary coverage on BBC Radio 3, with highlights from the Category Finals, presented by Linton Stephens with contributions from Jess Gillam, broadcast in the Lunchtime Concert slot from Tuesday 4 to Friday 7 October.
The BBC Young Musician Grand Final, recorded at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on Thursday 29 September, is scheduled for broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 9 October, with a presenting team featuring Jess Gillam, Alexis Ffrench and BBC Young Musician regular Josie d’Arby. The culmination of the contest will see Jaren Ziegler, and the other four category winners competing for the prestigious title. Each finalist will perform a concerto with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Mark Wigglesworth in front of an expert jury chaired by Anna Lapwood and including BBC Radio 3’s Editor for Live Music Emma Bloxham, Southbank Centre’s Head of Classical Music Toks Dada, conductor Ben Gernon, and sitar player, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar.
Further BBC Young Musician 2022 Category Finals broadcast dates on BBC Four and finalists can be found below:
Woodwind Category Final – Highlights: Monday 3 October, 7pm
Alex Buckley (18 – clarinet); Isaac Skey (14- flute); Lucas Dick (17 – clarinet); Sofía Patterson-Gutiérrez (17 – flute); Thomas Priestly (18 – saxophone)
Brass Category Final – Highlights: Tuesday 4 October, 7pm
Daniel Hibbert (17 – horn); Florence Wilson-Toy (17 – trumpet); Imogen Moorsom (18 – French horn); Phoebe Mallinson (16 – trumpet); Sasha Canter (18 – trumpet)
Percussion Category Final – Highlights: Wednesday 5 October, 7pm
Eric Zhang (15); George Garnett (18); Jordan Ashman (17); Joshua Gearing (17); Sophie Warner (18)
Keyboard Category Final – Highlights: Thursday 6 October, 7pm
All piano: Dida Condria (19); Duru Erdogan (18); Ethan Lock (17); Firoze Madon (18); Jacky Zhang (14)
All Category Finals will be available to watch in full on the BBC Young Musician website.
BBC Young Musician 2022 is managed and produced by BBC Studios Music and Entertainment, Cardiff.