The bass trombonist, 20 year old, Josiah Walters was crowned The BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Award winner for 2013 on Sunday night.

For the second time, the BBC nominated three winners from three different categories with the trio competing against each other at the RNCM in Manchester as the finale to the Festival of Brass weekend.

Carnoustie

Josiah is a member of Carnoustie & District Youth Band and only started playing the trombone at nine years old and in recent years has gone on to make a name for himself as a player and composer.

Walters' performance of Paul Lovatt-Cooper's ‘Song for the Skies’and the soloist's own arrangement of Chris Bruebeck's 'James Brown in the Twilight' convinced judges Richard Evans, Halle Orchestra Tuba player, Ewan Easton, composer Simon Dobson and British Bandsman Editor, Kenneth Crookston that he should follow some illustrious colleagues and take the title.

'I really can't put into words what winning this award means to me yet' ~ Josiah Walters

Stunned

Speaking on stage to the BBC's Frank Renton, Josiah was completely speachless and stunned that he'd won and later he told 4BR 'I really can't put into words what winning this award means to me yet'

High quality

Fellow competitors Thomas Fountain (who played both cornet and flugel horn) and Youth Brass 2000 were the other finalists where the standard was very high indeed. Twelve months ago, when asked about the standard, judge Richard Evans commented 'wow' whilst this year he commented to the audience that the standard continues to get higher and that a second 'wow' was required.

Close call

In conversation with 4BR after the competition, judges Kenneth Crookston and Richard Evans revealed that 'it was a close call who was going to take the title' with the way Josiah engaged and held the attention of the judges especially in his second piece, a key factor in their decision to award him the title.

Winners list

Whilst becoming the second recipient in the competition's new format, Walters now joins a list of winners that includes, Ross Knight, Lewis Musson, Katrina Marzella, Stephen Sykes, Ben Thomson, Brenden Wheeler and Matthew White — all regarded as some of the finest young brass talent of their generation.

Final broadcast on Radio 2

The final will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in the near future.