Rotary Young Musician of the Year Competition 2025

On Saturday 26th April we held our 9th Young Musician Competition at Bishop’s Stortford College, by kind permission of the Head, John Maguire. 

122 young musicians performed during the course of the day in three age groups and in five categories – piano, strings, woodwind, brass and vocal. There were entries from every secondary school in the town, plus a good number from local primary schools. 

Our three adjudicators – Alastair Chilvers (piano), Nathan Williamson (strings and woodwind) and Derek Harrison (vocal and brass) spent a very long day judging so many young people.  Each performer received a helpful and encouraging critique. By the end of the day 15 winners had received their awards, and others gained 2nd and 3rd places and Highly Commended certificates, where appropriate.

The fifteen winners performed again in the Evening Concert in the Memorial Hall at Bishop’s Stortford College.  The very high standard achieved by each performer gave the adjudicators a hard task in choosing winners.  There were overall awards for each age group, with Adrian Yu (St Edmunds College) winning the Overall Junior Award (12 and under) with a skilful performance on clarinet, and Tailin Liu (The Bishop’s Stortford High School) winning the Intermediate (15 and under) award on piano.  Yee Shun Chan (Hockerill Anglo European College), a talented cellist, took the Senior (under 18) award.  Runners up were Taixian Liang (younger brother of Tailin Liu and also a student at The Bishop’s Stortford High School) on piano, in the Junior age group, Sum Kiu Chan (Hockerill Anglo European College) (violinist and younger sister of Yee Shun Chan) in the Intermediate age group.  The Senior Runner Up was Josephine Davenport (Herts & Essex High School) on flute.

The last two awards the adjudicators had to decide - Young Musician and Young Vocalist of the Year – went respectively to Tailin Liu – a highly talented pianist and only 14 years old – and Emily Harrison (Bishop’s Stortford College), who performed a beautiful and contrasting programme of three songs.  Runners up were Yee Shun Chan and Esme Bailey (Hockerill Anglo European College) respectively. Tailin and Emily will now go forward in February 2026 to the Rotary District 1240 District Final, with the potential to win through to the Regional and National Final of this prestigious Rotary competition.  

It was a memorable and exciting day - a proud recognition of the musical talent in our local community.
The photos show President Hugo Richardson with the Young Vocalist and Young Musician of the Year, followed by a group photo of all the winners and runners up, with the adjudicators and President Hugo