The finals of the 10th BBC Young Jazz Musician competition, shown on BBC Four, 24th November, left no doubt that the legacy of hard bop is in good hands among young British players. Four finalists had competed the previous night at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank Centre for the top place, each playing their own versions of music from the standard jazz repertoire, and at least one piece of their own arrangement or composition. The winner, Ursula Harrison, a 22-year-old bassist from Pontygwaith, received a trophy and a prize of £3000.
The other finalists were saxophonist George Johnson (19, from London), pianist Nils Kavanagh (22, from Sligo) and trumpeter Klara Devlin (18, from London). They each performed a set in front of a live audience and a judging panel consisting of pianist Nikki Yeoh, saxophonist Soweto Kinch, trumpeter Laura Jurd, bassist Jasper Høiby and singer Zara McFarlane. They were backed by Zoe Rahman (p), Alec Dankworth (b) and Sophie Alloway (d). The event was presented by YolanDa Brown and Huw Stevens.
In addition to the television coverage on BBC Four, available on iPlayer for 12 months, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast highlights from the event in the programme ’Round Midnight on Friday 20 December (also on BBC Sounds).
The BBC Young Jazz Musician competition takes place every two years. The deadline for applications this year was 19 July 2024. Entrants had to be 22 or less on 1 September 2024, living or studying in the UK and not be closely related to anyone involved in running BBC Young Musician.
The judging process begins with assessment by unnamed judges of entries recorded to video. The 16 “best” musicians then progress to live audition and the four “best” of those are shortlisted for the final performance before a new set of judges. The judging criteria are performance; interpretation and stylistic awareness; improvisation; instrumental or vocal technique; and collaboration and interaction with other musicians (the last in live auditions and final only).
The rules tell entrants “There must be a substantial element of improvisation in your performance and this applies to singers as well as instrumentalists. Improvisation is a key part of the assessment at every stage, so if you don’t improvise you are very unlikely to get through to the next round.” The full rules, conditions and judging process are here.
Previous winners include bassist Ewan Hastie (2022), pianist Deschanel Gordon (2020) saxophonist Xhosa Cole (2018), trumpeter Alexandra Ridout (2016) and saxophonist Alexander Bone (2014). Suzy Klein, BBC Head of Arts and Classical Music TV, said she “can’t wait to see what’s next for this year’s winner and for all the wonderful finalists”.
