Sixteen year old bass trombonist, Alex Kelly, who is studying at Chetham's School of Music, has won through to the 2012 BBC Young Musician of the Year semi-finals after claiming the individual Brass Final title in a high class competition in Manchester.
Bates misses out
In doing so, Alex, who plays with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, knocked out 16 year old Black Dyke horn player Jonathan Bates.
To be able to be given the chance to represet both the banding movement and my instrument was a huge privilegeJonathan Bates
Ball, Ellerby and Sparke
The Brass Final was aired on BBC 4 and featured Jonathan playing music by Eric Ball, Dr Martin Ellerby and Philip Sparke. In addition to broadcasting all the competitor's performances, the programme also profiled each of the musicians.
Jonathan talked about his growing composition skills, whilst the cameras also showed him performing with Black Dyke and featured an interview with his proud parents.
Pride
Jonathan told 4BR of just what competing in the BBC competition had meant to him. 'To be able to be given the chance to represet both the banding movement and my instrument was a huge privilege. The standard of the musicians through to this level to compete against is so high, so to go out to a player like Alex is not so bad'.
Final in 3 weeks
The BBC coverage continues with the Percussion, String and Woodwind finals along with the semi final over the next three weeks. The final will be broadcast on Sunday 13th May from The Sage, Gateshead.
iplayer
The 90 minute programme is available to watch via the BBCiplayer.
