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Lloyd aims for historic BBC double

The reigning BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Award winner, Matilda Lloyd will be one of five brass players hopeful of being crowned the BBC Young Musician of the Year this weekend.

Matilda Lloyd
 

The prestigious BBC Young Musician of the Year competition reaches its climax this weekend with the 2014 winner being crowned.

The bi-annual event, which attracted over 450 musicians this year, has been broadcast by the BBC over recent weeks, and this Friday, will showcase the Brass Final.

Hoping to add another title to her CV will be reigning BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Award winner, Matilda Lloyd

Five compete

The 18 year old (pictured above) recently competed against four other brass instrumentalists at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff just three weeks before going on to claim the Radio 2 award in March.

Repertoire

With repertoire from Schumann to Enescu and Kurt Weill, classical guitarist Milos and trumpet player Alison Balsom (herself a BBC Young Musician finalist in 1998), the programme will show highlights and behind the scenes access from the competition.

Joining Matilda will be Isobel Daws, the daughter of the respected Salvation Army musician David Daws, as well as cornet player Will Thomas and trombonists Lewis Bettles and Ellena Newton.

Will is a pupil at the Junior Guildhall School of Music in London and is a member of both the National Children's and Youth Brass Bands of Great Britain.

If Matilda is crowned BBC Young Musician of the Year, then the trumpet player, who appeared with Cory at the recent European Championships Gala Concert, would become the first person to hold both titles in the same year.

Finalists

The full list of finalists is as follows:

Lewis Bettles (18) — Trombone
Isobel Daws (14) — Trombone
Matilda Lloyd (18) — Trumpet
Ellena Newton (14) — Trombone
Will Thomas (13) — Trumpet

The adjudicators for the final were Andrew Crowley and Helen Vollam.

Five down to three

The winner will go on to compete against the winners of the Keyboard, Percussion, Strings and Woodwind categories with just three making it through to the concerto final on Sunday at The Usher Hall, Edinburgh.

The finalists will perform with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under conductor Kirill Karabits.

The final will be broadcast on both BBC4 and Radio 3 when the winner of the £2,000 first prize and a specially commissioned trophy is announced.

Each of the brass finalists will be hoping to emulate previous winners of the competition, Michael Hext and Peter Moore4BR

Brass Final

The Brass Final will be simultaneously broadcast on Friday evening between 7.30 — 10.00pm on BBC Four and Radio 3 with the semi final and final broadcast 24 hours later on the same channels.

All transmissions will be available via the bbciplayer

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