Woking Young Musician of the Year, 2025

The 2024 competition was held at 7.00pm at St John’s Church, St John’s, Woking on 3rd February

The adjudicator was the eminent violinist, Paul Barritt.

Solo performers invited on the basis of their performance in Woking  Music Festival had an opportunity to compete in concert conditions at the  annual Woking Young Musician 2024 event at St John’s Church in St John’s, Woking.

The Mayor of Woking Cllr M Ilyas Raja awas in attendance and were treated to a truly magical musical performance that exceeded all expectations and performances to date.

In a packed church,  the audience was captivated with solo performances from the Young Musician competitors as well as the other outstanding award winners including: Junior Musicians of the Year (Winnifred Allam and Yash Saran), Most Promising Young Singer of the Year (Emily Hallett), Most Promising Young Actor Award (Hannah Wood), Chamber Music Award (Alex and Hanhan Qu);,Most Memorable Performance of the Year (Jack and Darcey Dwyer) and Best Choral Performance of the Festival (Semper Fidelis, Gordon’s School).

The evening concluded with the following prizes awarded:

First prize of £300 and Gordon Brown Trophy: Hanhan Qu

Second prize of £250 and Yorkshire Building Society Trophy: Maria Soloveva

Third prize of £200 and the H R Taylor Charitable Trust Trophy: George Christiansen

All other competitors Rohan McCauley; Anxo Garcia Missan; Alyshea Lee and Artas Stankevicius received a cash prize of £100.

The festival’s summer school bursary was awarded to Artas Stankevicius.

We thank the Mayor of Woking Cllr M Ilyas Raja for presenting the awards as well as our sponsors and friends of the festival for all their ongoing support to enable the evening to be such a tremendous success.

Well done and many congratulations to our prize winners of the evening.

The photographs below and others taken during the evening can be ordered online  from Anthony Gurr’s site:

The 2024 competition will be held at 7.00pm at St John’s Church, St John’s, Woking on 8th February, 2025

The adjudicator will be the eminent oboist, George Caird.

The aim of the competition is to provide young people, aged 14-20 years, who are selected on the basis of their performance in solo classes in the Woking Music Festival, with an opportunity to compete in concert conditions.

1st Prize: £400 and the Gordon Brown Trophy
2nd Prize: £325 and the Yorkshire Building Society Trophy
3rd Prize: £250 and the H R Taylor Charitable Trust Trophy
All other competitors receive a cash prize of £125.

As well as those who have been invited to take part in the competition, there will be performances by other winners of awards from the festival, notably the Woking Junior Musicians of the Year, the Most Promising Young Singer and the Most Promising Young Actor.

Tickets will be available from this site from 18th January and on the door.

Adults: £14

Under 18s: free

Click here for the names of previous winners.