BBC Young Musician 2014 launches new Jazz Award

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22600813

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The BBC Young Musician of the Year Award has launched its 2014 talent search, which includes a new Jazz Award.

The contest also has an ambassadorial role for violinist Nicola Benedetti, who won the award in 2004.

She will return to Usher Hall in Edinburgh for the final on 18 May 2014.

Benedetti said she was "hugely excited to be returning to the familiar environment of the BBC Young Musician", which holds "extraordinary memories".

The first BBC Young Musician Jazz Award will be made up of two audition stages followed by a final on 8 March 2014, which will be held at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

The college will also host the five classical music category finals for brass, keyboard, percussion, strings and woodwind.

The three finalists from those categories will go into the final where they will perform with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

More than 400 young classically trained musicians entered the 2012 contest, and more are expected to enter this time round due to the new Jazz Award.

The competition was started in 1978 and has helped launch the careers of classical musicians including Natalie Clein, Alison Balsom, Benjamin Grosvenor and Emma Johnson.