Well done BYM24 Ewan Metcalfe on an excellent concerto performance.

29th January 2024

The Bardi Young Musician concerts go from strength to strength!

Last Saturday’s concert saw 2024 winner Ewan Metcalfe give a breathtaking performance of Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 to a large audience in what has become the Bardi Young Musician concert’s annual home – Holy Trinity Church in Regent Road, Leicester. 

The Orchestra revelled in the excellent acoustic of the venue with some well-chosen pieces from the classical repertoire, beginning with the overture to Mozart’s opera Cosi fan Tutte and the second half was taken with a comparatively rare opportunity in recent times to hear Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in the concert hall. 

In a speech at the end of the first half Vice Chair Mary Moore said she was heartened, with all the gloomy news in the media about music education in schools, that Bardi have been able run the competition since 2012 with a consistently high standard of winners. 

In a surprise move she invited Joseph Geary, last years’ BYM winner who was in the audience for the concert, to present the trophy to Ewan neatly rounding off the competition.

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Ewan Metcalfe – Bardi Young Musician 2024

6th November 2023

The Bardi are delighted to announce that the winner of Bardi Young Musician 2024 is 17 year old clarinettist, Ewan Metcalfe.

An audition panel consisting of Robert Calow, Bardi Orchestra Manager, Lois Clark Principal Second Violin and Paul Hilliam, Guest Conductor, met at the end of October to hear four selected candidates to decide who would become Bardi Young Musician 2024. The standard was once again very high with a range of orchestral instruments and the panel had some lengthy deliberations to make before deciding on the winner. 

In the event they made a unanimous choice, the clear winner was clarinetist Ewan Metcalfe from Rearsby who is in the Sixth Form at Ratcliffe College. Ewan has been playing the clarinet for ten years and he currently studies with Christine Taylor. He is the third clarinetist to have won the Young Musician accolade since the competition was first held in 2012. 

The audition panel always give feedback to all the competing candidates and Ewan was told ‘The technical demands [of his chosen audition piece] are considerable and you have obviously worked hard to get on top of that. You also have a really nice tone and a good range of dynamics. Best of all, you invested lots of personality in your performance

Concert goers are in for a real treat when Ewan performs with the Orchestra on Saturday 27th January, at Holy Trinity Church, Leicester.  He will be playing Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in a programme which also includes a performance of Beethoven Symphony No 2. You can book tickets for the concert here.

Ewan Metcalfe, clarinet; the audition panel


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