Nine young classical musicians from the Cape, one from Durban and one from Pretoria have been selected out of 28 competitors to compete in the semi-final of the inaugural Artscape National Youth Music Competition in Cape Town.

Durban’s Jacqueline Wedderburn-Maxwell (violin) joins Frants Preis (piano) of Pretoria and Cape semi-finalists Michael Duffet (violin) of Llandudno, Irene Kim (piano) of Stellenbosch, Timothy Lin (piano) of Stellenbosch, Megan-Geoffrey Prins (piano) of Riversdale, Myles Roberts (flute) of Kraaifontein, Meyer Scholtz (clarinet) of Durbanville, Hamman Schoonwinkel (saxophone) of Bellville, Tatiana Thaele (flute) of Table View and Eben Wagenstroom (piano) of Elsies River.

The Artscape National Youth Music Competition is aimed at promoting talented young classical musicians and offers prizes totalling R50,000. It is the only youth music competition of its kind in South Africa where the six finalists compete in a performance with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO).

The adjudicators are all widely recognised academics and professional musicians from Gauteng, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape, and represent a cross section of different classical music instruments. They are Professor Erik Albertyn, Mr Shadrack Bokaba, Professor Francois du Toit, Professor Ella Fourie, Ms Malané Hofmeyr-Burger, Mr Michael Maas, Ms Suzanne Martens, and Dr Corvin Matei.

Internationally acclaimed conductor, Victor Yampolsky, will lead the orchestra in the final concert.

"This competition affords exceptional young classical musicians the opportunity to develop their musical and technical skills under competitive circumstances. Artscape has launched this initiative in collaboration with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Fine Music Radio and the City of Cape Town, to ensure the sustainability of South Africa’s performing arts," says Michael Maas, CEO of Artscape