SOME of the borough’s brightest musical talents will be performing as the Young Musician of the Year competition returns for 2022.

The aim of the competition is to provide young people, aged 14-20 years, who are selected on the basis of their performance in solo classes in the Woking Music Festival in November, with an opportunity to compete in concert conditions.

Woking Young Musician of the Year takes place this Saturday 5 February, held at the new venue this year of St John’s Church in Church Road, St John’s.

“We have a very interesting programme this year and the evening promises to be very entertaining,” said one of the organisers, John Loosemore. “There are six competitors: Ruvin Meda (15) piano, Isabella Mackie (16) oboe, Rhia Thomas (17) violin, Chung Sze Kwok (17) piano, Sophie Schofield (16) trumpet, and Stefanija Nikolich (17) piano.”

The audience will also enjoy other performances on the night.

“The two young pianists who have been awarded Junior Musicians of the Year, Daniel Nowrouzi (12) and Yash Saran (12) and the winner of the Most Promising Young Actor of the Year award, Eleanor Kitchin (10), will perform for us,” said John. “Also performing are Alex Qu (7) piano, and Sasha King (19) voice.”

Previous Woking competitors have gone on to compete in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and in recent years two have won the prestigious award.

The adjudicator for this year’s competition is Simon de Souza, a distinguished professor of horn, tutor and performer.

The competition will start at 7.30pm at St John’s Church. Ticket prices remain at £12 each and under-18s are free. Tickets can be purchased at the door and complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits will be available during the interval.

Parking will not be available in the church car park but the organisers say there is plenty of parking in the vicinity.

For more information, visit www.wokingmusicfestival.org.uk.