BBC Young Musician of the Year

BBC Young Musician of the Year
Former logo/banner used in 2004
Awarded for	Exceptional musical talent
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
First awarded	1978
Official website	BBC Young Musician website

The BBC Young Musician of the Year, simply BBC Young Musician since 2010, is a televised national music competition and despite the name, is broadcast on BBC Television and BBC Radio 3.

The competition, a former member of the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY), is designed for British percussion, keyboard, string, brass and woodwind players, all of whom must be eighteen years of age or under on 1 January in the relevant year. A competitive dance version, BBC Young Dancer, was launched in October 2014 and first awarded in May 2015.

The competition was established in 1978 by Humphrey Burton, Walter Todds and Roy Tipping, former members of the BBC Television Music Department.Michael Hext, a trombonist, was the inaugural winner. In 1994, the usage of percussion instruments was first permitted, alongside the existing keyboard, string, brass and woodwind categories. Since its introduction, the allowance of percussion instruments has increased interest in the competition among young people. The competition has five stages, which consist of regional auditions, category auditions, category finals, semi-finals and the final. The biennial competition is managed and produced by BBC Cymru Wales.

To date, there have been 20 winners, the most recent being Sheku Kanneh-Mason in 2016. At the age of 12, Peter Moore became the youngest winner of the competition. In 2014, the BBC Young Musician Jazz Award was introduced.Alexander Bone, a saxophonist, was the inaugural winner.