The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that eleven countries will be participating in the 21st edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians contest, to be held on Saturday, August 17, 2024 in Bodø, Norway.
In a press release, the EBU listed the participating broadcasters from Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland, who will be sending young musicians to the first ever Eurovision event held north of the Arctic Circle.
🎶Eurovision Young Musicians is back & we're thrilled to reveal our 2024 participants!👇 🥁
🎻Young musicians from @ArmPublicTV, @ORF, @VRT, @CzechTV, @Francetele, @WDR, @tvp_info, @RTS_Vesti, SVT, @SRF & NRK – our host broadcaster! – will compete in Bodø, Norway on 17 Aug 🇳🇴 pic.twitter.com/NwxhTlrYwY
— EBU (@EBU_HQ) April 5, 2024
The biennial competition, which features participants aged 12 to 21, focuses on budding classical musicians who compete on selected compositions with a single instrument.
The last contest, held in Montpellier, France on July 23, 2022, was won by Daniel Matejča from the Czech Republic (now Czechia), who performed the 3rd and 4th movement from Violin Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
As Sanremo inspired Eurovision, the EBU established the Eurovision Young Musician contest in 1982 based on the format of the United Kingdom’s BBC Young Musician.
Austria has the contest’s most wins with five, including the only home victory in 1998. Poland has the second most wins with three.
The contest also has the most one-off participations with ten countries having only appeared once (versus eight for Eurovision Young Dancers, four for Junior Eurovision, and Morocco the only non-returning country for Eurovision).
Most participants at the contest go on to lengthy careers as classical musicians in their home countries and abroad. Notable performers include violinist Julian Rachlin, cellist Natalie Clein and viola player Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad.
For 2024, only three countries have named their performer, with Norwegian broadcaster NRK intending to name theirs this weekend.
Violinist Leonhard Baumgartner will perform for Austria, pianist Mahault Ska for Belgium, and cellist Hugo Svedberg for Sweden.
Will #YOU be tuning in to see Europe’s classical musician hopefuls compete in the Arctic Circle this summer? Let us know in the comments, in our forum, and in our social media.
