Eurovision Young Musicians
The Eurovision Young Musicians, often shortened to EYM, or Young Musicians, is a biennial classical music competition for European musicians that are aged between 12 and 21. It is organised by the European Broadcasting Union and broadcast on television throughout Europe, with some countries holding national selections to choose their representatives for the contest.
The first edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians took place in Manchester, United Kingdom on 11 May 1982 and 6 countries took part. The contest was won by Markus Pawlik from West Germany, who played the piano. is the most successful country in the Young Musicians contest, having won five times,,,, and respectively and has hosted the contest a record six times. The most recent edition of this competition took place in Edinburgh, Scotland on 23 August 2018 and was won by Ivan Bessonov, who played the piano for Russia.
Background and history
The idea to hold a competition for young musicians was examined by the EBU Expert Group for TV music programmes in March 1980 during a meeting chaired by BBC's Humphrey Burton in Geneva, Switzerland.The Eurovision Young Musicians, inspired by the success of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, is a competition organised by the European Broadcasting Union for European musicians that are 18 years old or younger. The BBC competition was established in 1978 by Burton, Walter Todds and Roy Tipping, former members of the BBC Television Music Department. Michael Hext, a trombonist, was the inaugural winner that year.
won the competition for in and hosted in.
As a result of the success of the competition, the Eurovision Young Musicians competition was initiated in 1982.
The first edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians took place in Manchester, United Kingdom on 11 May 1982 and six countries took part. Some participating countries held national heats in order to select their representatives for the contest. Germany's Markus Pawlik won the contest, with France and Switzerland placing second and third respectively. It was also notable that Germany won the Eurovision Song Contest 1982 just a few weeks earlier.
In 1986, due to the increasing number of participating countries, a semi-final round was introduced at the competition, from which, according to the results of the jury's voting, five to eight of the participating countries progressed to the televised final. Following this, the competition did not undergo any major changes for a number of years. In 2006, the competition was one of the central events of the Year of Mozart and to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the pieces performed by the finalists were restricted to Mozart or pieces from his contemporaries.
Between 2006 and 2012, the competition was the opening event of one of the largest festivals in Europe, Vienna Festival and was held on an open-air stage for the first time. The 2018 contest was hosted by the BBC in partnership and as a highlight of the annual Edinburgh International Festival. The 2020 edition of the contest is scheduled to take place on 21 June to coincide with World Music Day celebrations.
Instruments and their first appearance
List contains only televised finals.| Order | Instrument | First appearance | Country | First performer |
| 1 | Piano | Anna Markland | ||
| 2 | Clarinet | Paul Meyer | ||
| 3 | Violin | Atle Sponberg | ||
| 4 | Viola | Sabine Toutain | ||
| 5 | Cello | Martina Schuchen | ||
| 6 | Horn | David Pyatt | ||
| 7 | Accordion | Christophe Delporte | ||
| 8 | Harmonica | Antonio Serrano | ||
| 9 | Trombone | David Bruchez | ||
| 10 | Organ | Frederik Magle | ||
| 11 | Percussion | Adrian Spillett | ||
| 12 | Contrabass | Ödön Rácz | ||
| 13 | Trumpet | David Guerrier | ||
| 14 | Harp | Gwyneth Wentink | ||
| 15 | Saxophone | Koryun Asatryan | ||
| 16 | Oboe | Simone Sommerhalder | ||
| 17 | Flute | Daniela Koch | ||
| 18 | Cimbalom | Alexandra Denisenya | ||
| 19 | Bassoon | Michaela Špačková | ||
| 20 | Kanun | Narek Kazazyan | ||
| 21 | Guitar | Kurt Aquilina | ||
| 22 | Recorder | Lucie Horsch | ||
| 23 | Double bass | Dominik Wagner | ||
| 24 | Tamburica | Marko Martinović |
Format
Each country is represented by one young talented musician that performs a piece of classical music of his or her choice accompanied by the local orchestra of the host broadcaster and a jury, composed of international experts, decides the top 3 participants. From 1986 to 2012 and again in 2018, a semi-final round took place a few days before the Contest, and the jury decided as well which countries qualified for the final.A preliminary round took place in 2014, with the jury scoring each musician and performance, however all participating countries automatically qualified for the final. The semi final elimination stage of the contest was expected to return in 2016. However the semi-finals were later removed due to the low number of participating countries that year.
In 1992 and 1994, a compilation CD was released by the host broadcaster and supported by an independent record label.
Participation
Eligible participants include primarily Active Members of the EBU. Active members are those who are located in states that fall within the European Broadcasting Area, or are member states of the Council of Europe.The European Broadcasting Area is defined by the International Telecommunication Union:
The western boundary of Region 1 is defined by a line running from the North Pole along meridian 10° West of Greenwich to its intersection with parallel 72° North; thence by great circle arc to the intersection of meridian 50° West and parallel 40° North; thence by great circle arc to the intersection of meridian 20° West and parallel 10° South; thence along meridian 20° West to the South Pole.
Active members include broadcasting organisations whose transmissions are made available to at least 98% of households in their own country which are equipped to receive such transmissions. If an EBU Active Member wishes to participate, they must fulfil conditions as laid down by the rules of the contest.
Eligibility to participate is not determined by geographic inclusion within the continent of Europe, despite the "Euro" in "Eurovision" – nor does it have any relation to the European Union. Several countries geographically outside the boundaries of Europe have competed:, and, in Western Asia, since 1986, 1988 and 2012 respectively. In addition, several transcontinental countries with only part of their territory in Europe have competed:, since 1994; and, since 2012. Listed below are all the countries that have taken part in the competition or are eligible to take part but have yet to do so.
Forty-two countries have participated in the Eurovision Young Musicians since it started in 1982. Of these, eleven have won the contest. The contest, organised by the European Broadcasting Union, is held biennially between members of the Union.
As of 2020, the Eurovision Young Musicians has had the most "one-and-done" participants of any continuous Eurovision event that has run for more than two years. No fewer than ten countries have made only one appearance at the event prior to withdrawing. Comparatively, there have been eight for Eurovision Young Dancers, two for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and one for the flagship Eurovision Song Contest. It also has the most cases of countries withdrawing after winning, which has happened on three occasions, compared to one instance each at Eurovision Young Dancers and the Eurovision Song Contest. Malta and Slovenia are currently the only two countries that have participated every year since their debut, while another three have only missed one contest each since debuting.
It was the first EBU event to include a large number of former Soviet states and Warsaw Pact member states, many of whom debuted in the Young Musicians prior to their Eurovision Song Contest debut.
| Year | Country making its début entry |
Hosting
Most of the expense of the contest is covered by commercial sponsors and contributions from the other participating nations. The contest is considered to be a unique opportunity for promoting the host country as a tourist destination. The table below shows a list of cities and venues that have hosted the Eurovision Young Musicians, one or more times. Future venues are shown in italics. With 6 contests, Austria and its capital, Vienna have hosted the most contests.| Contests | Country | City | Venue | Years |
| 6 | Vienna | Musikverein | ||
| 6 | Vienna | Konzerthaus | ||
| 6 | Vienna | Rathausplatz | ||
| 3 | Berlin | Konzerthaus | ||
| 3 | Cologne | Cologne Cathedral | ||
| 2 | Geneva | Victoria Hall | ||
| 2 | Lucerne | Culture and Congress Centre | ||
| 2 | Manchester | Free Trade Hall | ||
| 2 | Edinburgh | Usher Hall | ||
| 1 | Copenhagen | Radiohuset | ||
| 1 | Amsterdam | Concertgebouw | ||
| 1 | Brussels | Cirque Royal | ||
| 1 | Warsaw | Philharmonic Concert Hall | ||
| 1 | Lisbon | Cultural Centre of Belém | ||
| 1 | Bergen | Grieg Hall | ||
| 1 | Zagreb | King Tomislav Square |
Winners
As of 2018, there have been nineteen editions of the Eurovision Young Musicians competition, a biennial musicians contest organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union, with each contest having one winner. Austria is the only country to have ever scored a home victory, with violinist Lidia Baich winning the 1998 contest in Vienna. Austria is also one of only two countries to have hosted after winning the previous contest, alongside Poland, who hosted the 1994 contest after winning the 1992 edition. It is the only Eurovision event to date to have multiple instances of the same country winning that also won that year's Eurovision Song Contest, and the only instance of one country hosting multiple major Eurovision events in the same year.Winners by year
By country
The table below shows the top-three placings from each contest, along with the years that a country won the contest.| Country | Total | Years won | |||
| 5 | 2 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
By instrument
As of 2018, twenty-four instruments have appeared at least once in the televised finals. The following seven have been played by a winner at least once.| Instrument | Family | Total | Years won |
| Violin | Strings | 8 | |
| Piano | Keyboard | 5 | |
| Cello | Strings | 2 | |
| Clarinet | Woodwind | 1 | 2008 |
| Flute | Woodwind | 1 | 2010 |
| Viola | Strings | 1 | 2012 |
| Saxophone | Woodwind | 1 | 2016 |