The search for the next BBC Young Musician has launched and for the first time the competition will also include a Jazz Award. The format for the five classical competitions – Brass, Keyboard, Percussion, Strings and Woodwind – is the same as in previous years. The former winner of BBC Young Musician, Violinist 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.’  She is to be an ambassador for the competition.

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Cellist Laura van der Heijden who’s winner of BBC Young Musician 2012, 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 applications’ closing date is 26 July 2013. The final for the 2014 competition will be held in Usher Hall in Edinburgh.