Woking Music Festival recently hosted its annual Young Musician competition at a packed St John’s Church.

The evening included performances from eight outstanding performers contending to be Woking Young Musician 2025, as well as for various other awards.

The coveted Gordon Brown Woking Young Musician Trophy and £400 prize was awarded to 15-year-old flautist Hanhan Qu, having won the same award last year.

“An amazing concert,” adjudicator Georg Caird said. “You are all winners.”

Caird, a renowned oboist, added that Hanhan Qu had played a “phenomenal showpiece” by Chant de Linos.

Second place (£325 and Yorkshire Building Society Trophy) was awarded to 19-year-old harpist Jamaal Kashim, a participant in the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2024, reaching the semi-final round.

He performed the Fire Dance by composer David Watkins, who had won the first Woking Young Musician trophy in 1979.

Anxo Garcia, a 16-year-old pianist, took third (£250 and HR Taylor Charitable Trust Trophy), impressing with his impeccable Debussy toccata as well as his breathtaking interpretation of Chopin’s third Ballade.

The other competitors, Rentarou Nito, Liliia Konstantinova, Nicholas Yang, Jerry Liu and Miriam Grant, received a cash prize of £125.

Qu said: “I’m thrilled to win again and it was nice to share a new piece, a full dimension piece which captured the attention of the audience. It has been a different performance this year in that I was playing for the audience and loved sharing my passion for performing with them.”

Other award winners included: Junior Musicians of the Year (Leah Yan and Anaiyah Kashim); Most Promising Young Singer (Chloe Ayres); Most Promising Young Actor Award (Hattie Wisbey); Chamber Music Award (Hanhan and Alex Qu); Most Memorable Performance (Harry Gordon, bagpipes); Best Choral Performance of the Festival (A Capella); Dame Ethyl Smyth Award, best performance of a work by a female composer (Yash Saran).