The Competition has taken place and the results are:

Winners
Anton Pigott: Piano, 18yrs, Wells Cathedral School
Evie Mengxi Xu: Piano, 8yrs, Dumpton School
Emilia Eggers: Violin, 16yrs, Redmaid's High School
Lucas Zhang: Viola, 13yrs, Wells Cathedral School

Runners-Up
Valeriia Dombrovska: Piano, 11yrs, Stoke Bishop CofE Primary (Bristol)
George Grandison-Jewitt: Double Bass, 16yrs, Wells Cathedral School

Highly Commended
Estella Fawden: Voice, 15yrs, Wells Cathedral School
Jacob Phillips: Flute, 15yrs, Wells Cathedral School
Saynel Asensio Martinez: Piano, 16yrs, Weston College, Weston-S-Mare

Ana-Maria Rincon, the Chair of the 2026 Adjudication Panel said:

“It was a huge pleasure returning to judge the Young Musicians’ Competition 2026, alongside such an illustrious panel of very experienced musicians. Yet again, the standard of the performers was outstanding, and the job of selecting our Winners a challenging one.

Although there were many impressive, virtuosic performances, the candidates that stood out were the ones that had deep heart felt musicality, who WANTED to perform, and who had well considered programmes to demonstrate their ability across contrasting repertoire. This was very much evident in the winners."

We cannot run our competition without the generous support of many. Our thanks go to:
Taunton School, and in particular Mr Toby Carden, Director of Music, for allowing us to use the GWR Recital Room.
Mr and Mrs John and Averil Arnold, for providing wonderful hospitality to our adjudicators.
The Adjudication Panel (Ana- Maria Rincon, Mel Orriss, Rokas Valuntonis, Pavlo Beznosiuk).
Andrew Trewhella, accompanist.

Comment from a candidate's parent:
"I recommend this competition to anybody for the simple reason that the judges have the depth of knowledge that is required. My children, like other competitors, work hard to prepare and perform. Occasionally the judges simply do not have the required knowledge to assess the applicants' abilities and fairly compare them to others. The Two Moors Festival judges undoubtedly did with a panel consisting of professional musicians from each category of instrument. Many thanks!"