Innovative repertoire, worthy winners & talent development: looking back at the final of BBC Young Musician

BBC Young Musician final, 20206 – Sofia Demetriades [Photo: BBC / Betsan Evans]

It was heartening to hear three such talented young people in the BBC Young Musician 2026 final and to experience such imaginatively varied repertoire. Whilst the winner, violinist Sofia Demetriades played Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and impressed both audience and judges, recorder player Alma Nunez Debretzeni played Graham Fitkin’s Recorder Concerto and saxophonist Kezia Colton played Takashi Yoshimatsu’s Cyber Bird Saxophone Concerto. All three accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Alpesh Chauhan at Bristol Beacon.

I was very much taken with Graham Fitkin’s Recorder Concerto, a work I did not know before. This was originally commissioned by Debretzeni’s teacher, Barbara Law, and it was given its premiere performance in 2017 by 2014’s Young Musician finalist, Sophie Westbrooke. Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu’s influences range from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky through to Pink Floyd, Yes, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. His concerto for alto saxophone dates from 1993 with a title that refers to ‘an imaginary bird in the realm of electronic cyberspace’ and it was written for virtuoso saxophonist, Nobuya Sugawa. At Bristol Beacon, the Competition’s 2022 winner, the percussionist Jordan Ashman, joined Kezia Colton onstage for Yoshimatsu’s concerto.

BBC Young Musician final, 20206 – Alma Nunez Debretzeni [Photo: BBC / Betsan Evans]

Violinist Sofia Demetriades has already been making waves. In March, she won the senior category of the Haslemere International String Competition with a prize including concerto performance engagement with the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) at the Haslemere Festival. Continuing the ECO connection, Demetriades will be ECO’s inaugural New Horizons Artist Sofia Demetriades. New Horizons is the English Chamber Orchestra’s flagship talent development programme which is being launched next year. The programme will identify exceptional emerging musicians and composers and support them through a sustained two-year pathway from education into professional life.

The BBC Young Musician final 2026 is on BBC iPlayer.