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

The adjudicator was the eminent oboist, George Caird.

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 2025 event at St John’s Church in St John’s, Woking.

The Deputy Mayor of Woking, Cllr Amanda Boote was 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 (Leah Yan and Anaiyah Kashim), Most Promising Young Singer of the Year (Chloe Ayres), Most Promising Young Actor Award (Hattie Wisbey), Chamber Music Award (Alex and Hanhan Qu), Most Memorable Performance of the Year (Harry Gordon) and Best Choral Performance of the Festival (A Capella, LVS Ascot).

The evening concluded with the following prizes awarded:

First prize of £400 and Gordon Brown Trophy: Hanhan Qu

Second prize of £325 and Yorkshire Building Society Trophy: Jamaal Kashim

Third prize of £250 and the H R Taylor Charitable Trust Trophy: Anxo Garcia

All other competitors Rentaro Nito, Liliia Konstantinova, Nicholas Yang, Jerry Liu and Miriam Grant received a cash prize of £125.

The festival’s summer school bursary was awarded to Jamaal Kashim.

We thank the Deputy Mayor of Woking Cllr Amanda Boote 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.

Photographs taken during the evening can be ordered online  from Anthony Gurr’s site.