Keyboard Final BBC Young Musician

To witness the emergence of a new artist is always exciting.

For nearly four decades, BBC Young Musician

has been providing a showcase for the brightest and the best.

BBC Young Musician is the most important accolade that

a young musician can have.

This is a fantastic chance for them to make a reputation

and to make an impression on the audience.

Many of today's leading musicians have taken part in the competition.

And the list of winners includes some of the biggest names

in British classical music.

Nicholas Daniel.

Frederick Kempf.

Nicola Benedetti.

Two years ago, 17-year-old pianist Martin James Bartlett

delivered an unforgettable performance in the final

to join a star-studded line-up.

It is the best musical experience I have had

and I am sure it will be for the rest of my life.

And, as the winner of the first-ever BBC Young Musician Jazz Award,

launched that same year,

Alexander Bone also took his place in British musical history.

It's so amazing.

I can't believe that I won it.

The search for the next generation is underway

and tonight we begin our coverage of the Category Finals

as five remarkable young pianists take centre stage.

Welcome to BBC Young Musician 2016.

One of the great joys of presenting this series

is the opportunity it gives to witness the emergence

of outstanding young musical talent.

We were both in Edinburgh two years ago

and I don't know about you, Ali,

but I can still remember the excitement

of seeing Martin James Bartlett's performance in that final.

It was a really special evening.

All three finalists did themselves proud,

but it was Martin's moment.

A very exciting new talent, indeed.

And if this competition lives up to previous years,

I'm sure, yet again, we're in for something quite extraordinary.

Well, we're back at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

and over the next five weeks, we'll be introducing you

to all of the competitors

and bringing you highlights of their performances.

If you'd like to see those in full,

you can find them on the BBC website...

Ahead tonight, music includes Chopin, Mozart, Liszt

and Rachmaninov as five pianists compete in the Keyboard Final.

But before we get started,

let's have a look at how our finalists made it

to this stage of the competition.

The search for the next BBC Young Musician began last year,

with nearly 450 entries across five categories.

Keyboard,

woodwind,

percussion,

brass

and strings.

To enter, they must be Grade 8 or equivalent,

so the standard is already set high.

To have reached this level, we are talking outstanding musicians.

You have to literally spend hours practising.

One thing in common that the competitors will have

is a determination.

Give it your all.

You have to give up a lot of things that other teenagers

are probably doing, cos otherwise, it's never going to work.

At this stage, they have to get out there

and really just play the music, play their heart and souls out

and that is a challenge at a young age.

It's really quite a scary thing.

Following two rounds of auditions in front of expert panels,

25 were selected for these finals,

five in each category.

The keyboard finalists are...

Yuanfan Yang.

At 19, already a veteran of the competition.

When I got to the Grand Final in 2012,

that was sort of a farewell thing.

I wouldn't think that I would be doing this competition again.

So, it really feels to be like a great joy and a pleasure to be back.

17-year-old A-Level student Tomoka Kan from London.

I'm really excited for the category finals.

I've been looking forward to this and I'm really excited

to play my programme through in front of the audience and jury.

From Salford, 15-year-old Jackie Campbell,

who's a student at Chetham's School of Music.

I think I'm just going to try and focus on the music as best I can.

I just really hope I can do my best and then that's good enough for me.

Julian Trevelyan, who's 17 and comes from St Albans.

He competed in the Keyboard Final in 2014, too.

I enjoyed it last time and I'm enjoying it so far this time.

And our youngest Category Finalist,

13-year-old Harvey Lin from Berkshire.

Most of the competitors are 16 to 18 and I'm only 13,

so I'm really proud to get this far.

If I don't get further, I'm still going to be happy,

so I think, now, just really go for it.

So, a really impressive line-up

and very nice to see some familiar faces in there.

The winner of tonight will take their place alongside

the other category winners in the semifinal,

where they'll compete for the three places in the Grand Final.

We'll tell you more about that later.

Tonight, though, it's all about the piano.

What's unique about this category is that everyone is playing

the same instrument, so you can really compare like with like.

But that has its challenges, too. Ali, what do you think

is going to make these performances really stand out?

Well, of course, it is important

that they've made good repertoire choices and have a good technique,

but in the end, it is the same as all the categories,

it's about who is the best musician.

Well, we have a lot to look forward to

and plenty for our judges to consider.

Let's find out what they'll be looking for.

The Keyboard Judges are

concert pianist Leon McCawley,

a BBC Young Musician keyboard winner in 1990.

I'm looking for someone who has imagination,

who can convey that to the audience.

Someone expressive, poetic

and someone who has emotional commitment to the music,

who really makes each piece speak.

And Llyr Williams, also a concert pianist,

known in particular for his interpretation of Beethoven.

What's interesting about these youngsters

is the daring adventurousness of a lot of their programmes.

Sometimes you have to move the audience

and something very slow and sensitive in other pieces

has got to be very impressive.

It can't just be rattling away at 90mph

with no real sense of communicating to the audience.

And the Chair of the Jury, composer Dobrinka Tabakova.

Ultimately, what I will be looking for is for that ability

to read the composer's intentions,

to inhabit the music

and to make it their own

in the heightened atmosphere of cameras, audience, action,

to manage to soar above that

and deliver a really effortless performance.

So, that's who our Keyboard finalists have to impress.

So, the scene is set.

Five incredibly talented young pianists ready to share their music

with audience and jury alike

here at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

Well, it's almost time to see the first competitor in these category finals.

Ali, you've been in their shoes.

How do you prepare for a moment like this?

I think at this point, it's just got to be about the music.

The months and years they've spent preparing

have got to be put out of their heads

and they've got to find a way of captivating us

as an audience, just to bring out something extra special for us.

Well, our first pianist is no stranger to this competition.

You may remember his performance in the Grand Final back in 2012,

when he was just 15.

Now 19, he's back to make one last bid for the title.

It's Yuanfan Yang.

Yuanfan first came to our attention

as a 13-year-old category finalist back in 2010.

I know it is the third time that I'm doing this competition,

but I think in so many ways, my approach to the entire thing

hasn't changed from the first time.

It is still just as fresh. It is just as new.

It is just as exciting as it has been back in 2010.

As a musician, it's very hard to get opportunities to perform out there

and I think Young Musician is something that can really

just give you that bit of a push upwards.

Two years, later Yuanfan came within touching distance

of the Young Musician trophy when he made it to the Grand Final.

It all happened very, very quickly.

I remember just standing there waiting to go on, really,

and I think I have all prepared and my mind was completely

just absorbed in the music that I was about to play,

and I think that was the best that I could have done at that point,

and I don't have any regrets of my performance whatsoever.

Obviously, I feel as if I have matured as a performer

and hopefully that will come across through my playing.

Yuanfan has now left school and moved to London

to study at the Royal Academy of Music,

where he's taught by Christopher Elton.

I think he is one of the most gifted

and advanced young pianists of his age that I know.

We say, "Make the piano sing", but also make it talk.

So you begin...

It is now more and more trying to explore how he communicates,

to capture the essence of a piece in a way that really communicates

with an audience and tells you, as I think a great performer does,

something about him as a person, as a musician, as an artist.

As a newcomer to London,

Yuanfan is trying to soak up all the city has to offer.

I love it here. It's so full of life. It is buzzing.

It is full of music everywhere.

It is full of people and activeness and culture.

That's definitely something that is just making

a mark on my musical integrity.

Do you feel like a different player now compared to four years ago?

Over the years, I have hopefully matured as a player

and hopefully I can bring more integrity

and a deepness to my interpretation for my performance.

I know your teacher, Christopher Elton,

had a lot of success in the competition,

with Freddie Kempf being one of his pupils, who was a winner in 1992.

Has he given you any specific advice?

Just to really make the most of the experience.

You know, learn even more. I mean, I think Young Musician

is such a fantastic educational opportunity.

Each time I've learnt so much from the experience

I don't think you can get in other situations.

And here is Yuanfan

to open this year's BBC Young Musician category finals

with a notoriously difficult piece by Franz Liszt.

La Campanella is a really, really virtuosic piece.

A pianist gets so much opportunity to showcase themselves.

It's really, really beautiful.

APPLAUSE

Yuanfan dealing magnificently

with the delicate but demanding La Campanella,

that grande etude by Liszt.

Also in his programme,

he played the second movement of Beethoven's Sonata in D minor.

To end his programme,

Yuanfan turns to 1940s Russia.

The third movement of Prokofiev's seventh sonata

is taken from his set of war sonatas,

which Prokofiev wrote during the Second World War.

It's really energetic and it's a very powerful piece as well.

It doesn't stop. It very relentless.

It starts and it just goes all the way to the end

without a single pause, so it's a really fun piece to play.

APPLAUSE

19-year-old Yuanfan Yang

getting this competition off to a tremendous start.

It was so full of bravura virtuosity

and to start with La Campanella,

it's such a scary piece to begin with,

but he accomplished such a wonderful expertise throughout his programme.

It was very impressive.

A very musical performance over the Beethoven

and then a very strong finish, I think, with the Prokofiev,

and the last movement of the seventh sonata,

so I was very impressed.

I just wanted to do the best I could and try and interpret

the music as faithfully and as honestly as possible

and I hope I managed to convey that to the audience tonight.

A remarkable performance from Yuanfan,

hoping to make it third time lucky.

Very brave of him to come back.

For me, that was an incredibly assured performance, Alison,

and I was so gratified to see how emotionally mature he is now.

We know he's got all the dazzling technical fireworks,

but I thought he played with such soul,

especially in that Beethoven.

I agree totally. It's really, really hard to come out

and be the first performer, but I felt he created an energy

in the room straightaway and, as you say,

the Beethoven was really special. I hope the judges thought so, too.

Well, a wonderful way to start this final.

Next up it's 17-year-old Tomoka Kan from London.

At the weekend, Tomoka studies at the Junior Royal College of Music.

During the week, she's a full-time student at Westminster School

in the heart of London.

Morning assembly takes place at Westminster Abbey,

with Tomoka accompanying the school choir on the organ.

On Mondays and Fridays, we have assemblies in Westminster Abbey.

Obviously, it's really beautiful there

and also the acoustic is wonderful.

Just the sheer sound of the organ resonating around the Abbey

and blending in with the sound of the choir is really amazing.

That is the highlight of my day.

Apart from music, I also really love maths.

I'd like to present my research...

'Last summer I attended a maths summer camp in Boston

'and this is where I actually started my research project

'on kissing numbers.'

If we consider this blue ball here,

what we want to do is we want to find the maximum

number of balls we can have touching this ball here without any overlaps.

My team and I really found this problem interesting,

so we decided to continue working on it even after the camp ended.

'We've got some results now

'and we are trying to get our work published,

'which is really exciting.

In maths, there are lots of symmetry and lots of patterns within numbers

and I think that's also true for music,

where the theme is often repeated in many forms

and I think that's kind of like sequences in numbers.

Tomoka is such an extraordinary young woman.

The wonderful things she's doing in the fields of maths and science

at the same time as excelling on the piano

and all the other things she does...

You know, the sky is the limit for someone like Tomoka.

So what does the future hold for Tomoka?

I've applied to university for maths but that is only because I think

it is easier to carry on both maths and music that way around.

I'm not sure what I want to do in the future,

so I'll definitely be carrying on music at the same level.

Tell me about your experience of the BBC Young Musician competition.

What's been the highlight so far?

The highlights have been the performance opportunities.

It was really great to be able

to perform my repertoire in the first and second rounds

and all this filming has been a great experience as well.

And was it hard to choose the repertoire?

Because of course, you have so much to choose from.

I am quite happy with my own programme at the moment.

I really love all three pieces

and they are all quite contrasting, which is really good.

Tomoka begins her programme with Chopin's Nocturne in B major.

The piece I'm playing is one of Chopin's later works.

Throughout his life, Chopin got more and more interested in counterpoint

so all of his later works are quite contrapuntal.

I really enjoy that aspect.

Tomoka creating a spellbinding atmosphere in the hall

with Chopin's Nocturne in B major.

Next she performs Liszt's Transcendental Etude No. 5.

The Liszt is notorious as one of the most difficult piano works,

and I've chosen it because I enjoy a challenge.

Although it's from around the same era as the Chopin,

it's really different in terms of characters and textures.

To close her performance, Tomoka plays a piece

by contemporary British composer Michael Zev Gordon.

The piece that I'm playing is called A Tango There Was,

and the tango rhythm keeps on coming back throughout the piece.

But there are also snatches of Jewish Klezmer music,

which is a type of Jewish tango which existed in Eastern Europe.

APPLAUSE

17-year-old Tomoka with a really strong sense

of her own musical voice and what she wants to say.

Tomoka opened with a beautiful nocturne,

she's a very poetic player,

and then she chose this unusual piece by Michael Zev Gordon,

I was totally blown away by it.

Graceful and elegant all the way through,

and then I was just so pleased that she chose the Michael Zev Gordon

as her final piece, to really show some contrast

and show that she can be gutsy.

It was good, a good experience.

Just playing to an audience was really good,

to try to convey a story and express the emotion of the piece.

Tomoka Kan there giving a remarkable performance,

so bold this programme choice.

The Chopin of course enchanted us straightaway,

the Liszt, the clarity of sound was wonderful,

and the Michael Zev Gordon, what a brilliant choice,

I love this piece, don't you, Clemmie?

It was a fantastic piece, Ally, I completely agree,

I hope it was the right programme for her.

I was so captivated by that Chopin, I was in bits,

but then I hope that the next two pieces really show off all aspects

of her pianistic personality, because it's clearly huge.

But what an extraordinary performance.

Amazing, yeah, really well balanced.

And a reminder that you can see Tomoka's

and all of the other performances

in full on the BBC Young Musician website.

Next tonight, it's Jackie Campbell from Salford.

MUSIC: Hallelujah Chorus by Handel

15-year-old Jackie is studying for his GCSEs

at Chetham's School of Music,

a specialist music school in Manchester.

Jackie has been a pupil there since he was just eight years old.

Our first work is going to concentrate on oratorio.

Chetham's is a very good place for me to come to school,

because I get the chance both to do music

and devote a lot of time to it,

and I also can do all my academic subjects

like at any normal school.

So I'm not losing out on either.

Let's have a look, how are you getting on there?

Um...

Yeah, you can see that there, can't you?

I think I do like learning new things,

because it's something about just learning about the world

and how we are,

and I think everything can be interesting in its own way.

-TEACHER SINGS TUNE

-Go on, that's it.

I think I first started playing the piano when I was about...five maybe?

To be honest,

I can't quite remember why I chose the piano at first,

but I'm still happy with it now, so I think that's good.

Following in Jackie's footsteps is his younger brother Jordie,

who's also a student at the school.

To be honest, I think he started playing the piano

because I was playing the piano and he wanted to join in.

When we play duets, we can both be part of the music.

I do feel like there is some kind of musical connection,

because we can hear each other playing and so we don't need to

see each other making the sound,

but we can almost feel it and go together with it.

I think, for me, when I play by myself at the piano,

I want to go into the music and give this music to people.

I want to think about the way the music's going together,

what it's trying to express,

because it expresses feelings much more accurately than words can.

It's beyond words, but it speaks far more clearly to me

and to, I think, many people as well.

I just want to express the music, then I'm happy.

Jackie, how challenging is the step of taking your music

from the practice room into the concert hall stage?

Do it in the practice room properly,

it's not that difficult to take it to the stage, but it still needs

the willpower on the stage to do it properly

and the ability to focus more.

How does it feel when you step onto the stage,

that magical moment just before you walk out?

I guess it's a sense of purpose,

because I'm there to deliver something to the audience

and I need to do it properly.

And so, really it's just the music that's occupying all of my mind.

First we'll hear Jackie's performance of

Scriabin's Preludes Op 11, Nos 10 and 11.

APPLAUSE

Next, Jackie plays Debussy's Prelude from Book II, No. 12,

Feux d'Artifice, or "Fireworks".

Debussy wanted just pure feeling in his music

without being bound to any old laws,

and this piece is really exciting,

it's the sound of lights,

it's the way all this magic can come together in a slightly mystical way.

In his programme, Jackie also performed Ligeti's Etude No. 4,

but to end, we're going to hear him play

Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux, Opus 39, No. 9.

Rachmaninov's music is very, very rich music, it's music that

expresses a lot, it's very... almost sophisticated, in a way.

But at the same the time, it's very plain speaking.

APPLAUSE

The audience understandably impressed by Jackie's performance,

but what did the judges make of it?

From coming on stage, you're just captivated by him.

All of the pieces he chose, on paper you'd say maybe there's similarity,

but actually he really inhabited each of those worlds so, so well.

He moved me to tears, actually, in one of the Scriabin pieces,

very special performer.

Of course there were bits that didn't quite go to plan, I guess,

but that always happens.

I did the best I could, so that's good enough for now.

Jackie Campbell making some fiendishly difficult repertoire seem incredibly easy.

Alison, you've been talking to him, we know he's a sensitive soul,

how did that come through in the performance?

You know what really moved me?

I felt like he was serving the music,

it wasn't about him, it was about the composers.

Especially in the Debussy, I actually had goose pimples,

because I knew this piece really well, because I just thought,

"This is taking us out of this space and into another world,

"this world of fireworks from Debussy." I loved it.

Well, before we hear the last two performers

in this keyboard category, let's have a look forward to

the Grand Final of BBC's Young Musician 2016.

This year it's taking place at London's Barbican Centre

on the 15th of May.

Three finalists will each perform a full concerto

with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.

It's always an incredibly special occasion, and it provides

a real opportunity to see the next generation of young musical talent.

You'll be able to watch the final in full, here on BBC Four.

Later in this programme, we'll catch up with

the current BBC Young Musician titleholder, Martin James Bartlett,

and find out what he's been up to

since that night in Edinburgh almost two years ago.

But meanwhile, back to the competition,

and another face you may remember from last time around.

It's Julian Trevelyan.

Julian is no stranger to BBC Young Musician,

having made it to this stage of the competition two years ago.

He's home-schooled and lives in St Albans.

There, he can often be found performing, whether in choir

at St Albans Abbey, or as part of the local theatre group.

..thus advises thee.

Remember who commended thy yellow stockings...

..and wished to see...

'I've been acting in plays'

since at least I was seven or before.

'It's just a different perspective on performance,'

which I find very interesting.

So how have these experiences helped Julian prepare for this competition?

He was confident then,

but now I think he feels he has reached a stage

where he can play any piece of music on the piano,

there are no challenges he can't...try and master.

I like new challenges, I like new sounds.

In a performance, I'm always trying to find new paths

through the characters, through the emotions.

I'm going to continue exploring the music of every composer

from here to the sun.

There is so much out there,

I don't think I will ever feel satisfied, because...

there's so much in everything.

Julian, what do you hope to tell the jury about you as a performer?

I hope to tell the jury that I am an interesting performer

with a daring sense of the musicality.

And how did you choose the repertoire

for this evening's programme?

I chose the repertoire to give, like, a varied meal.

There's courses of different characters and sounds,

and...just give the audience a fun time.

APPLAUSE

The first piece we're going to hear from Julian is Noctuelles,

or "Moths", by the 20th-century French composer Ravel.

Julian playing Ravel's Noctuelles,

and next it's one of Schumann's Fantasie pieces - Warum.

The Schumann has got interweaving lines, it feels almost

as though it's a string quartet, with a quartet of singers.

APPLAUSE

Julian also played the first movement from Chopin's Sonata No. 2,

but to finish, it's a piece composed in 1992,

the first of five etudes in different intervals

by Nikolai Kapustin.

APPLAUSE

A 17-year-old pianist with great flair,

Julian Trevelyan looking completely comfortable up there on the stage.

But what do the judges think?

That was a really impressive programme,

I mean, he just walked on with all this confidence

-and just captured everyone.

-SHE LAUGHS

This one-page piece of Schumann called Warum

was one of the highlights of the evening for me,

magically played, I think the way he managed to weight all the harmonies,

he really captured the audience's attention with this piece.

The audience was very responsive and warm,

and I think they especially enjoyed the last piece, the Kapustin.

Julian Trevelyan there giving us a incredible all-round performance.

I think he's developed astonishingly since he was here two years ago.

The thing I loved about his playing the most, Clemmie,

was that he wasn't just playing the notes,

he was really inside that music, he'd really considered it,

he understood what he was playing, it was quite remarkable.

Yeah, not hard to see why he's back again

two years after being in the final.

Tremendously stylish performance I thought,

and I love someone who can conjure that whole soundscape,

the real spectrum, from wit to gravitas and everything in between.

Going to be hard to beat, I suspect.

Well, the last to perform this evening, and the youngest

across all our category finals this year, is 13-year-old Harvey Lin.

Harvey, from Bracknell,

has been playing the piano for the past six years.

When I was seven-and-a-half, I was at my old school,

there was a sheet of daytime club lists, and then I saw "piano",

and I just wanted to try something new.

I really liked the piano sound,

you can create all sorts of emotions on the piano.

If you don't have emotion,

then it really doesn't make your music come alive.

And if you want it to come alive,

then you've got to put your soul into the music.

At the weekend, Harvey returns home for lessons

with piano teacher Edita Stankeviciute.

The lessons are really intensive

and you have to put all of your focus into it.

# Bom...bom, bom, bom, bom. #

But it's really useful, and the advice that my teacher gives,

it's really helpful.

To have talent, it's just a gift, isn't it?

To use talent and to work hard, this is something,

and Harvey has that something.

I think my dream is to become a top concert pianist.

And Harvey takes another step closer to realising his dream,

as he prepares to play Beethoven's First Piano Concerto

with the Reading Symphony Orchestra.

Being the best is one of the things that motivates me.

I think you have to be the top of the top

to really stand out in the crowd.

He's got this musical maturity that seems to come from within him,

which is really natural.

It's really genuine, which is very rare for someone that young.

Isn't he amazing? Absolutely astounding.

For us it's amazing, because you don't even need to worry about

being together with him, cos he's such a strong musical personality

that you just join his musical inspiration.

Harvey's talent also found him a place

at the Lang Lang Foundation's Junior Music Camp,

where he received some advice from the world's most famous pianist.

The advice Lang Lang gave me was really, really helpful,

and he's a really good teacher as well, very clear,

you can understand what he's saying. I think he's really good.

He's one of my top heroes.

Harvey, tell us how it feels when you're standing at the side

of the stage, that split second before you walk on?

It's a very, very big thrill just to walk on the stage

with all these people clapping and cheering.

It makes me feel very happy and also proud of myself,

and also motivates me to play very nice music for them.

How did you choose the music and what does it mean to you?

Well, I chose the Mozart,

because it is a minor sonata in a minor key,

so I thought it would be interesting to play a sonata

that is more dark and gloomy.

Well, I'm sure Harvey will bring light and joy

to his performance nonetheless.

Here he is with the first movement of Mozart's Sonata in C minor.

APPLAUSE

Following that Mozart sonata,

Harvey turns to another titan of the piano repertoire.

I also chose a piece by Chopin, the Scherzo No. 1.

It's a very expressive melody

and I think it contrasts very well with the outer sections.

Fast, fiery, but also slow and singing.

Harvey Lin, playing Chopin's Scherzo No. 1 with remarkable maturity.

To end his performance,

he plays Rachmaninov's Prelude Opus 32, No. 12.

I chose the Rachmaninov because it's a very lyrical piece

and it has a lot of complicated harmony,

and there's always a very nice, lyrical melody

singing throughout the whole piece.

APPLAUSE

Harvey Lin, bringing this BBC Young Musician Keyboard Final

to a close.

Harvey is a great talent, he's only 13 years of age,

and I especially liked his Chopin's Scherzo.

Full of brilliance, really, lots of energy.

The Prelude, at the end,

that was one of the highlights of the evening, for me.

That's how I hope I would play that piece,

with the beautiful, singing melodies.

Well, after all the preparation,

it's all been done, and really, just...

I have to put emotion and enjoy the music and that's what I did.

I'm really happy with how I played.

Another astonishingly self-assured performance from Harvey, there.

He's the youngest across all of the categories.

Ali, if I shut my eyes, I could not believe I was hearing a 13-year-old.

He's only been playing for six years,

but there's something he brings to the music,

an incredible maturity,

and he's quite captivating to listen to, don't you think?

Totally captivating. I was also transfixed by his hands.

They've obviously all got amazing hands,

but his were really mesmerising.

Well, we've now seen all five performers

in this Keyboard Final.

You've probably got your favourites.

I have to say, I would not want to be in the jury's shoes.

I mean, on any given year,

any one of them could be going through,

but there can, of course, only be one winner.

But while the jury are making the all-important decision,

we're going to catch up with the current BBC Young Musician,

Martin James Bartlett.

A very popular winner in 2014,

the past two years have seen his life change in many ways.

MUSIC: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninov

Competing in BBC Young Musician was such an exhilarating experience.

My first time ever to play with a professional orchestra

on such a wonderful stage.

I was so zoned in on what I was doing

that I had no idea of the cameras at all, moving around.

And I think once you know a piece so well,

that it's really ingrained in you,

there's that capability to just lose yourself in the music.

APPLAUSE

It was an unforgettable experience.

Since being named BBC Young Musician

Martin has been in huge demand at concert venues across the country,

and last summer he gave his first-ever performance

at the biggest classical music festival in the world.

The Proms debut was an incredibly wonderful experience,

and to walk out onto the stage of the Royal Albert Hall

and to see so many people there really does set the nerves a little,

but at the same time, it's great fun.

MUSIC: Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin

As well as his busy concert schedule,

Martin also studies full-time at London's Royal College of Music.

I'm now studying here, in my second year of my degree,

with Vanessa Latarche.

SHE VOCALISES

I think it's very important

never to stop your development as a musician,

and that's what college does so well,

is that it provides you with the background knowledge

whilst also allowing you to hone your craft of performing.

HE PLAYS ENERGETIC PIECE

I feel very humbled to be invited

to these concert halls all around the country,

and I'm definitely sure that BBC Young Musician

is the reason for that,

so it's a wonderful platform to really show what you have.

The unique and wonderful Martin James Bartlett, there.

Gosh, I find him so inspiring,

and I'm sure we'll be hearing lots more of him in the future.

As you can see now, I'm backstage with this year's keyboard finalists,

and we're just about to hear the announcement.

First, though, a quick recap of tonight's performances.

Yuanfan gave a really controlled performance.

Very professional, he had lots of poise at the piano.

I especially liked his Prokofiev at the end,

it was a real blistering account of it.

Tomoka started off with some Chopin,

which was very beautiful in its own right,

but I got the impression slightly she was playing for herself.

But then she finished with a piece

by a composer I'd never encountered before.

She really made the piece build from beginning to end.

This was probably the most convincing performance

of a contemporary piece in the concert tonight.

Jackie has very special qualities.

He's a very natural player and he let the music speak.

He communicated to the audience in a very sincere way

and there were moments that were really touching.

Julian's programme

was one of the best-constructed programmes in the evening

and his Schumann was particularly beautiful, I think -

he really held me there.

He finished off with another of these pieces I've never encountered,

and it looked horrendously difficult

from following the music in the score.

It made my right hand ache just to look at the music,

never mind trying to play it,

but he seemed to be coping all right

and giving it a sense of fun.

Harvey - incredible young musician.

All the way through he projected this real calm,

that kind of ability to be happy with yourself.

Maybe the programme was something

that one would expect from a competition,

and I would have liked to see him choose something more unusual,

potentially, but he delivered it all to such a high level.

It was an unforgettable evening. The standard was exceptionally high.

It was great to experience,

we were really privileged to just sit there and listen.

APPLAUSE

So here is chair of the jury, Dobrinka Tabakova,

to announce the winner of this BBC Young Musician Keyboard Final.

My colleague adjudicators and I would like to thank

tonight's contestants for a spectacular evening.

The level was exceptionally high.

It was really rather difficult, but it gives me great pleasure

to announce the winner of the BBC Young Musician 2016 Keyboard Final

is Jackie Campbell.

APPLAUSE

Jackie stood out immediately.

There was just something really unique about him.

He interpreted the works his own way,

it's his style and he had something to say to us as well.

I found his performance really moving.

Jackie, congratulations. That's fantastic.

You played so wonderfully. How are you feeling?

I don't know, to be honest!

I just...I just played and I didn't expect anything.

We all did our best,

and I think... I...

I think we're all really special.

Well, I can't speak for myself, I take that back, actually!

You must be so pleased. I'm so thrilled for you, well done.

Thank you.

APPLAUSE

Huge congratulations to Jackie Campbell.

We'll be seeing him again in four weeks' time,

when he performs in the semifinal

with the other four category winners.

They'll all be after those three coveted places

in the Grand Final of BBC Young Musician 2016.

Tonight really has been a fantastic night of music-making, hasn't it?

And a wonderful way to kick off this year's competition.

A reminder that if you'd like to hear and see

the performances in full, you can do so on our website -

bbc.co.uk/youngmusician.

We'll be back again next Friday for the woodwind category final,

so hope you can join us, then.

Meanwhile, from all of us here in Cardiff, goodnight.

We'll definitely see fireworks.

I still can't believe that I got this far.

I just love playing the saxophone,

and to be able to play in the competition is brilliant.

Being on stage, it's just the rush.

What a privilege to hear such accomplished performers.

The whole audience was with her.

Sensational.