Scottish Young Musicians 2024
Euan Kemp, 17-year-old Saxophonist from East Dunbartonshire has won the Scottish Young Musicians Solo Performer of the Year 2024 the final of which took place at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on 26 May 2024. Kemp, an S6 pupil from The Music School of Douglas Academy, has been playing Saxophone since he was 11 years old and performed music by Ryo Noda and André Jolivet.
Second place was shared by pianist Magnus Shanks (aged 16) from Aberdeenshire and accordion player Jake Johnstone (aged 15) from South Lanarkshire, who as accompanied on the piano by his younger sister. There were 31 finalists in all with a range of instruments including saxophone, clarsach, accordion, guitar, pipes, trumpet and more. The day culminated in performances by the winning Scottish Young Musicians Brass Ensemble of the Year, Campbeltown Brass Ensemble and Ensemble of the Year, Belmont Academy Woodwind Ensemble from South Ayrshire.
The Scotland-wide competition is run by The Music Education Partnership Group who work with every school and local authority to support music education and opportunities. The final is the culmination of individual school and local authority competitions, and the competition this year involved local authorities covering 99% of Scotland’s population.
Singer and broadcaster Jamie MacDougall, who hosted the final, commented, "The way the different Local Authorities have embraced this competition and recognised it across the country has helped to give it the status and importance it deserves. For young musicians to have an opportunity to perform and be heard we must provide appropriate resources to schools and those who work with young people in music – without that there is no future of music in Scotland."
Euan Kemp, 17-year-old Saxophonist from East Dunbartonshire has won the Scottish Young Musicians Solo Performer of the Year 2024 the final of which took place at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on 26 May 2024. Kemp, an S6 pupil from The Music School of Douglas Academy, has been playing Saxophone since he was 11 years old and performed music by Ryo Noda and André Jolivet.
Second place was shared by pianist Magnus Shanks (aged 16) from Aberdeenshire and accordion player Jake Johnstone (aged 15) from South Lanarkshire, who as accompanied on the piano by his younger sister. There were 31 finalists in all with a range of instruments including saxophone, clarsach, accordion, guitar, pipes, trumpet and more. The day culminated in performances by the winning Scottish Young Musicians Brass Ensemble of the Year, Campbeltown Brass Ensemble and Ensemble of the Year, Belmont Academy Woodwind Ensemble from South Ayrshire.
The Scotland-wide competition is run by The Music Education Partnership Group who work with every school and local authority to support music education and opportunities. The final is the culmination of individual school and local authority competitions, and the competition this year involved local authorities covering 99% of Scotland’s population.
Singer and broadcaster Jamie MacDougall, who hosted the final, commented, "The way the different Local Authorities have embraced this competition and recognised it across the country has helped to give it the status and importance it deserves. For young musicians to have an opportunity to perform and be heard we must provide appropriate resources to schools and those who work with young people in music – without that there is no future of music in Scotland."
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:22 Welcome to the Stevenson Hall for the final of the Scottish Young Musician 2024.
00:30 [Music]
00:55 [Music]
01:09 It's really good to hear in this competition such a variation of different styles of music
01:15 and music coming from people from all over Scotland.
01:18 We see the musical theatre stuff and then we see the more popular stuff and the traditional stuff.
01:22 It's really nice. The green room backstage, we're all supporting each other.
01:26 We're all on the same boat. We're all a bit nervous but we push through it
01:31 and we're supporting each other before we go on and when we come off.
01:34 [Music]
01:37 It'll be a really enjoyable experience to pass the trophy on to another young musician
01:41 just like myself sharing the passion.
01:43 [Music]
02:00 This has been a competition I've wanted to do for the longest time
02:03 and when I won it for my council this year I just burst into tears because I wasn't expecting it.
02:09 It was just everything and more and I'm so grateful to be able to do it
02:13 because it's just so nice to be able to work with people who are like-minded from all over the country
02:19 and see their passion and you always pick up things from them and learn things.
02:23 So yeah, it's been great.
02:25 It's not just about the SQA element of music but it's actually that whole round performer.
02:30 They've been able to technically be able to play the instrument
02:33 but also to be able to play to the audience to make you capture that piece of music that you're performing.
02:38 [Music]
02:43 The competition has given me so many opportunities.
02:47 I had the privilege to visit Downing Street at a Burns event and I also got to go on Scala Radio.
02:56 It's just given me so much confidence as well.
02:59 [Music]
03:07 To have music in the curriculum is crucial.
03:10 The younger you can possibly get them to have an instrument in their hands or singing in a choir,
03:16 I mean it can only bode well for us as a society to have people who have music in their life as early as they can.
03:25 I think for example the young patient we've got is 13 so I think he's actually the youngest pupil to ever perform within the event
03:32 and for him that just takes him on that long journey.
03:35 He's already raised the bar quite considerably so where will he be at the age of 18?
03:39 [Music]
03:49 I know for me I really struggled in school making friends.
03:52 The one place where I belonged was the music department.
03:54 Today we're hearing a lot of musical excellence but around the country there's over 61,000 young people
04:01 learning to play an instrument in our schools.
04:03 If they get involved in ensemble playing and learning from their peers, socialising with their peers as well,
04:10 that social development is vital as they head through their school years and then into adulthood to make their own way in life.
04:17 To practice and to get yourself into that routine of practice and always working on something,
04:23 to always progress is important.
04:26 I mean it's transferred to everything else that I've worked on.
04:31 [Music]
04:40 I think that people are realising more and more how vital music is.
04:44 It's not just about creating musicians but actually the skill set that's required in order to learn an instrument,
04:50 to perform, far outweighs quite a lot of other curricular areas
04:54 and I think that we need to be much better at shouting that and making people aware of it
04:58 because it's actually vital not just for learning, it's vital for life skills and beyond.
05:02 [Music]
05:13 And the 2024 Scottish Young Musician is Ewan Kemp.
05:22 [Applause]
05:29 [Music]
05:47 My name's Ewan Kemp and I'm the winner of Scottish Young Musician 2024.
05:51 I'm feeling amazing, really, really, really good.
05:55 I think I've been playing the saxophone since Primary 5.
05:58 I really started with joining the Eastern Barneshire Children's Chorus and that really got me into loving music.
06:05 I think almost more than practice, it's what you do in the performance and kind of keeping yourself calm
06:11 but also just, for me especially, just having a really good time.
06:14 I'm going to go out for a really nice meal now, I think.
06:17 And it was very unusual, I think, to choose a saxophonist as the winner
06:25 because it's very difficult for the saxophone to win a competition like this
06:30 up against all of the other instruments with the repertory of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and so on.
06:36 But Ewan was just so convincing.
06:39 It just makes me very, very confident for the future of music in Scotland.
06:46 These kids are just absolutely brilliant.
06:49 Thank you, I'll see you next year. Thank you very much.
06:51 [Applause]
06:54 [Music]
07:02 [Music]
07:07 [MUSIC]