A Sensational Performance From The Young Musicians of The Future
BBC Young Musician always showcases the best young musical talent the UK has to offer and this year was no different.
The competition concluded earlier this month after an epic contest where several hundred candidates were cut down to just three: Canadian pianist Ryan Wang, Ukrainian violinist Shlomi Shahan and Surrey-born pianist Jacky Zhang.
Having made it to the grand final, the trio were asked to perform a concerto of their choice with the National Orchestra of Wales in front of a crowd of 3,000 people, along with the three esteemed competition judges: Alison Balsom, Alexis Ffrench and Hannah Catherine-Jones.
Surprisingly, both pianists decided to play Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto, although they had no idea they were performing the same piece.
The show kicked off with Jacky’s interpretation of Rachmaninov’s 2nd.
Although the judges felt it took him a couple of minutes to get going, Jacky quickly grew into the piece in the second and third movements with an outstanding, bold and fast-paced end to the performance.
Then came Shlomi who performed Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto at an incredible standard showing immense stamina, skill and emotion throughout the piece.
In the build up to the concert, the award-winning conductor Ben Germon commented on the challenge the orchestra would have playing the same concerto twice in one night, when each interpretation by the pianist was so different.
Nevertheless, they rose to the occasion and performed flawlessly with all three performers throughout the concert.
Finally came Ryan Wang who drew the audience into his performance with a flawless first movement.
His communication with the orchestra was exceptional, making it easy for them to go with his take on the piece, whilst still performing with exceptional emotion and skill.
As a result of his brilliant performance, Ryan Wang was crowned the winner of BBC Young Musician 2024.
This capped off a fantastic competition and showed the level of skill and talent all the competitors have at such a young age.
They all have immense potential; the judges said Shlomi could be one of the world’s best concert violinists in the future several times throughout the competition.
Making it this far in such a well-known, high calibre competition will be extremely helpful for all the finalists to make their way in the music industry and continue to improve and play at an extremely high level.
