Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra crowns winner of Young Soloist Competition 2022.

Jelena Horvat has been declared the winner of Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloist Competition 2022.
The Mayor, Jelena Horvat and Graham JonesThe Mayor, Jelena Horvat and Graham Jones
The Mayor, Jelena Horvat and Graham Jones

The competition had to be cancelled last year but returned strongly with performances of a very high standard. The judges had to deliberate long and hard into the evening after the first round. They selected five performers for the final:

Anna Crawford, cello, age 21, is currently at the RCM. Among many other accomplishments she has been part of the European Youth Orchestra since 2020.

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Jelena Horvat, violin, (18), is from Serbia and from a family of professional musicians; currently at the Yehudi Menuhin School.

Lon Fon Law, double bass (21) is currently at the Royal Academy of Music. He is from Hong Kong where he came first in a Hong Kong Schools Music Festival.

Daniel Pengelly, flute (17) is currently in the sixth form at Chetham’s Manchester. He is a keen composer and wants to be a solo flautist or film composer “or ideally both.”

Sharon Zhou, violin (17) is currently at Junior Guildhall. She wants to pursue conducting as well as performing the violin.

And it was Jelena who triumphed.

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Graham Jones, chairman of the judges and ESO musical director, said: “It was a great afternoon of music making for certain and the winning performance captivated us from the outset.

“As not often happens in this situation, the judges were able to just sit back and enjoy the performance. If the judges are writing lots of things down it usually means that there’s going to be a lot of discussion coming up but with this one, we were just sitting enjoying and that is always a great sign for the performer.

“Really it was the sheer professionalism and musicality of her performance which made her the winner. She is from a family of musicians and that shines through. She is 18 and she is still studying at the Menuhin School. She has such poise and confidence and I think that comes from growing up with musicians. She began playing the violin at the age of six and studied in all sorts of places. She is from Serbia so a lot of her early stuff was around there.

“Our decision was absolutely unanimous. It really didn’t take much discussion and I think that’s very unusual. Usually when you are judging there will be two people who think one performer is the winner while two other people are batting for somebody else but not this time. She was exceptional.

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“The last time we had this competition was in 2020. We got in just in time before the pandemic so it was a huge relief to be back.

“I just feel so much for musicians and how much they have suffered through all of this Covid experience. I just feel for these young people when you think of the opportunities that they have missed over the last a couple of years. Their opportunities have been so slim and I guess in terms of teaching it has had to be done online and there have been so many limitations on the competitions that they have been able to do. Those competition opportunities have just not existed. And it is such an important platform for young people thinking of making their way in the musical world. The importance of competitions is to be able to display their talents with others of a similar age but from very different backgrounds. We were delighted to be back. It was a huge success.”

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