BBC Young Musician Award 2022: 17 year old Glaswegian wins keyboard final

A 17-year-old from Glasgow has won the Keyboard Final of BBC Young Musician 2022 and will go through to the Grand Final of the competition.

Ethan Loch is the fifth and last finalist to be announced as part of the 2022 contest and will join viola player Jaren Ziegler, flautist Sofia Patterson-Gutiérrez, trumpeter Sasha Canter, and percussionist Jordan Ashman.

The BBC Young Musician 2022 Keyboard Final was recorded in early July at Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden, Essex. Highlights were broadcast on BBC Four on this evening (Thursday, October 6). The other keyboard finalists were pianists Dida Condria (19), Duru Erdogan (18), Firoze Madon (18) and Jacky Zhang (14)

The expert panel of judges for the Keyboard Final included pianist and composer Tom Poster and pianist and BBC Young Musician 1992 finalist Daniel Tong. They joined organist, director of music at Pembroke College, and broadcaster Anna Lapwood, chair of all the BBC Young Musician 2022 Category Final judging panels.

Hour-long programmes of highlights from each Category Final were broadcast on BBC Four all week. They were introduced by trailblazing saxophonist and broadcaster Jess Gillam - a competition finalist herself in 2016 and BBC Radio 3 presenter - and classical soul pianist, composer, and producer Alexis Ffrench.

There will also be coverage on BBC Radio 3, with highlights from the Category Finals, presented by Linton Stephens with contributions from Jess Gillam, broadcast in the Lunchtime Concert slot until tomorrow, Friday October 7.

The BBC Young Musician Grand Final, recorded at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on Thursday September 29, is scheduled for broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3 on Sunday October 9, with a presenting team featuring Jess Gillam, Alexis Ffrench and BBC Young Musician regular Josie d’Arby.

The culmination of the contest will see Jaren Ziegler, Sofía Patterson-Gutiérrez, Sasha Canter, Jordan Ashman and Ethan Lock competing for the prestigious title.

Each finalist will perform a concerto with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Mark Wigglesworth in front of an expert jury chaired by Anna Lapwood and including BBC Radio 3’s Editor for Live Music Emma Bloxham, Southbank Centre’s Head of Classical Music Toks Dada, conductor Ben Gernon, and sitar player, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar.

All Category Finals will be available to watch in full on the BBC Young Musician website.