麻豆约拍

The 2020 edition of 麻豆约拍 Young Musician remained incomplete when we left it last spring. Tonight the story resumes with extensive highlights of the semi-final, which was filmed at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama just days before the first UK-wide lockdown back in March last year. The semi-final sees the winners of the keyboard, strings, brass, woodwind and percussion finals compete for the three coveted places in the grand final.

Organist and conductor Anna Lapwood is our guide to proceedings. She is joined by Tim Rhys-Evans, director of music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, who provides insight and analysis. Josie d鈥橝rby also joins the line-up with interviews with the semi-finalists and Jess Gillam continues her series of conversations discussing the changing face of classical music with visionary conductor Nicholas Collon.

As always, the five talented performers provide a tough challenge for the judges.

The semi-finalists are:
Fang Zhang, winner of the percussion final, oboist Ewan Millar, winner of the woodwind final, Annemarie Federle, who won the brass final on French horn, winner of the keyboard final, pianist Thomas Luke, and violinist Coco Tomita, who won the strings final.

Making the all-important decisions are:
Lisa Tregale, director of the 麻豆约拍 National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, Chi-chi Nwanoku, acclaimed double bassist and founder, artistic and executive director of the Chineke! Foundation, John Hardy, award-winning composer and head of composition at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and Angela Dixon, chief executive of performance space Saffron Hall and chair of the judging panel for 麻豆约拍 Young Musician 2020.

The semi-final was filmed at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in March 2020 before the national lockdown.