{"id":821168,"date":"2026-11-01T22:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T22:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821168\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T22:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T22:52:19","slug":"teenage-violinist-wins-bbc-young-musician-2026-after-first-all-female-final-bbc-young-musician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821168\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage violinist wins BBC Young Musician 2026, after first all-female final | BBC Young Musician"},"content":{"rendered":"

A teenage violinist has won the BBC Young Musician<\/a> competition 2026, in the first all-female final in the competition\u2019s 48-year history.<\/p>\n

The judges, Joanna MacGregor, Ben Gernon and Errollyn Wallen, hailed Sofia Demetriades\u2019s performance of Tchaikovsky\u2019s Violin Concerto as full of insights, poetry and maturity.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old is from Leicestershire, and in her first year of undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music.<\/p>\n

The brainchild of Humphrey Burton, the biennial BBC<\/a> competition was set up in 1978 and has produced finalists such as Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Alison Balsom, Stephen Hough and, in 2004, Nicola Benedetti, who was the last violinist to win.<\/p>\n

Demetriades was one of several hundred to send in a video application, before 40 young players were selected to attend live auditions in Bath Spa University to gain one of eight places in the quarter-finals \u2013 which took place on Demetriades\u2019 18th birthday. Among her fellow quarter-finalists was the first accordion player to reach the final stages, 14-year-old Sylvester Maschi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recorder player Alma Nunez Debretzeni, violinist Sofia Demetriades and saxophonist Kezia Colton, finalists of BBC Young Musician 2026. Photograph: BBC\/Betsan Evans<\/p>\n

Each of the three finalists performed a concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Alpesh Chauhan in a concert at Bristol Beacon. An 18-year-old saxophone player, Kezia Colton<\/a>, performed Takashi Yoshimatsu\u2019s 1994 Cyber Bird Saxophone Concerto, while 17-year-old recorder player Alma Nunez Debretzeni played Graham Fitkin\u2019s Recorder Concerto.<\/p>\n

Fitkin\u2019s virtuosic concerto involves six different recorders, ranging from the giant contrabass, about 1.6 metres high, to the tiniest sopranino. It was originally commissioned by Debretzeni\u2019s teacher, Barbara Law, and it was given its premiere performance in 2017<\/a> by 2014\u2019s Young Musician finalist, Sophie Westbrooke. And there was a further connection this year to previous competitions \u2013 2022\u2019s overall winner, the percussionist Jordan Ashman<\/a>, joined Kezia Colton onstage for Yoshimatsu\u2019s concerto.<\/p>\n

\u201cKezia plays with incredible verve and spirit, said Wallen. \u201cHer performance was sassy and cool,\u201d said Gernon, \u201cbut her more intimate playing is incredibly strong too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judges hailed the \u201celectricity, aliveness, and beautiful intensity\u201d that Debretzeni brought to Fitkin\u2019s concerto. \u201cShe took us on a musical journey \u2026 we were inside every note,\u201d said Wallen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the competition I hadn\u2019t planned on being a musician,\u201d said Debretzeni. \u201cI wanted to study psychology \u2026 but this has been so inspiring it\u2019s made me want to pursue music. It\u2019s been literally life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demetriades was acclaimed as a simply extraordinary musician by MacGregor. \u201cShe performs with her eyes, achieving dizzying technical feats but she looks as if she\u2019s enjoying it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSofia\u2019s innate sense of colour, musical style and architecture combines with an effortless technique, and a joy for whatever music she\u2019s playing. In a competition full of gifted and dedicated young musicians, Sofia\u2019s sensitivity and sophistication stood out in every round. I\u2019m very excited to watch her musicianship develop even further in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The winner receives the trophy, a cash prize of \u00a33,000<\/a> towards music studies as well as recording and broadcast opportunities on Radio 3, including with one of the BBC ensembles. All three finalists will work with Young Classical Artists Trust<\/a> on managing their future careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so honoured and thrilled to have been a part of BBC Young Musician,\u201d said Demetriades. \u201cI loved playing in the quarter-final on my 18th birthday. I didn\u2019t think I could top that, but to go on to be crowned winner is my absolute dream! It was pure delight to share the stage with BBC NOW, Alpesh Chauhan and my fellow finalists \u2013 I really hope to play alongside them again soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final and the three previous stages are available to watch on BBC iPlayer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teenage violinist has won the BBC Young Musician competition 2026, in the first all-female final in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-821168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}