18-year-old percussionist Jordan Ashman is the second consecutive percussionist to win the competitors
British percussionist Jordan Ashman hails from Milton in Cambridgeshire, England, and is at the moment in his first yr of research on the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
On the 2022 BBC Younger Musician of the 12 months competitors, Ashman selected to play a percussion concerto by the American composer Jennifer Higdon, and was backed by the BBC Philharmonic with conductor Mark Wigglesworth within the last.
Having taken up the drums on the age of seven, Ashman gravitated naturally in the direction of percussion. On the age of 8, he constructed a 3.5-octave xylophone with the assistance of his father. His love of percussion has led to locations within the Nationwide Youngsters’s Orchestra, Nationwide Youth Orchestra, and Nationwide Youth Brass Band.
The opposite 4 finalists have been trumpeter Sasha Canter (19), pianist Ethan Loch (18), flutist Sofía Patterson-Gutiérrez (17), and violist Jaren Ziegler (17).
«Collaborating in BBC Younger Musician 2022 was an unimaginable expertise,» Ashman stated. «Engaged on the Jennifer Higdon Percussion Concerto with Mark Wigglesworth within the Grand Last, and performing alongside such superb musicians together with the opposite opponents and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, was one thing that I’ll always remember.»
«I used to be, and nonetheless am, actually excited to showcase what I and all of the completely different percussion devices can do, and I hope that I’ve vastly elevated individuals’s understanding of percussion and that they’ll see how vibrant, virtuosic, expressive and dynamic the percussion could be,» he added.
«Jordan’s efficiency began not with loud, flashy taking part in, however with beautiful, light magnificence,» commented organist and broadcaster Anna Lapwood, the chair of the jury.
«He held your entire room all through that delicate opening and stored that magic by way of his entire efficiency. Jordan mixed emotional expression with a simple, assured approach, and moments of brilliance that made all of us catch our breath.»
