Ryan Wang is currently on a music scholarship at Eton College. He won the competition with his performance of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Ben Gernon.
Having started playing the piano at the age of four, Wang gave his first solo recital at Carnegie Hall only a year later. He gained his Artist Diploma at the École Normale de Musique de Paris in France in May 2024, and was the youngest ever to win the Prix Cortot. He participated in the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s New Generation Piano series 2022-23, and received First Prize and the Audience Award in the 18th Animato International Chopin Competition in February 2024.
Wang commented: 'I'm so honoured to be writing to you as the winner of BBC Young Musician 2024. This journey has been incredible. I still can't believe this is all happening! I have enjoyed sharing my music with you all so much and I am so grateful for all the support I have received. This competition experience has been so amazing and I have been so fortunate to meet such incredible musicians. I am so excited to continue to share my musical journey with audiences, and hope to see you all in concert someday.’
In the competition final, Wang beat Shlomi Shahaf (17), an Israeli-Ukrainian violinist currently studying at the Purcell School, who performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto; and Jacky Zhang (16), a pianist from Surrey and a student at the Royal College of Music, who also performed Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto.
The final of the competition was broadcast on BBC TV, iPlayer, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds on 20 October, and was presented by Jess Gillam, who as a saxophonist was a finalist in the competition in 2016. The jury comprised trumpeter Alison Balsom, pianist/composer Alexis Ffrench, and multi-instrumentalist/broadcaster Hannah Catherine Jones.
Balsom commented, ‘Ryan Wang is a truly remarkable musician. He has an extremely rare ability to communicate something otherworldly – and embody the music … In the final it was abundantly clear to all of us that he was creating a kind of magic. He generously raised the game of the orchestra too, and alongside his flawless technique, he was able to reveal his soul with such honesty. We felt we were witnessing one of the great historical performances of Rach 2.’
Previous BBC Young Musician winners include celebrated classical music stars such as cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, violinist Nicola Benedetti, clarinettist Mark Simpson, and, in 2022, percussionist Jordan Ashman (22), from Cambridgeshire.
