BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award

Last updated

BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award
Awarded for Folk music
Sponsored by BBC Radio 2
Country United Kingdom
Formerly calledYoung Tradition Award
First awarded1998
Last awarded2019
Currently held byMaddie Morris
Television/radio coverage
Network BBC Radio 2

The BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award is an annual competition for young folk musicians in the United Kingdom. It was first awarded in 1988 as the Young Tradition Award, taking its present name in 1998. Recent winners of the award include Brighde Chaimbeul, Talisk and Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Competition

The Young Tradition Award was a competition for young players of traditional music which was awarded annually between 1988 and 1996. BBC presenter Jim Lloyd wanted to get funding and publicity for young folk musicians in the same way that young classical musicians were helped by the BBC Young Musician award, and in 1988 he created the Young Tradition Award with a grant of £500 from the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust. The title was a tribute to the 1960s folk group The Young Tradition. [4]

The following year the award was adopted by the BBC programme Folk On 2 which Lloyd presented. Over the next six years, competitors included Carlene Anglim, Damien Barber, Pauline Cato, MacLaine Colston, Luke Daniels, Ingrid Henderson and Catriona MacDonald. [4] In 1994 Lloyd wrote that the Award had been expanded to include traditional singers as well as instrumentalists, restricted to professional or semi-professional artists, and associated with a bursary of £1,000. [4] Lloyd retired from the BBC at the end of 1997, and a Young Tradition big band including all the previous winners performed on his final Folk On 2 programme. [5] [6]

The BBC recreated an award from 1998, calling it the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award. Until 2005, the competition was run by Folkworks on behalf of the BBC. [7] The entry criteria in 2005 were that the event was "open to anyone aged between fifteen and twenty, performing as a band, duo or soloist and performing traditional and acoustic music with roots in any culture", [7] and these criteria have remained largely unchanged in subsequent years. [8] The short-listed finalists are invited to a residential weekend, as part of which they will perform in a public concert at which the winner is chosen by a judging panel. [8]

Since 2011 the winner of the Young Folk Award has been announced at the main BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, which are broadcast on BBC Radio 2 with some highlights also televised. However the selection process for the Young Folk Award remains independent.

Young Folk Award finalists (1998–present)

2019
Maddie Morris
The selection process changed again for the 2019 award. There were eight shortlisted acts, but only the winner was officially announced. [9] Some of the finalists have identified themselves, including Jon Doran. [10]
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
The number of finalists was reduced from six to four this year.
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2004/5
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
422 [19] [26]
1998
Tim Van Eyken [16] [19] [26]

Young Tradition Award finalists (1988–1996)

Information about the nominees in the earlier years is scarce.

1996
1995
1994
Kathryn Roberts [32]
1993
Carlene Anglim [33]
1992
Luke Daniels [34]
1991
Catriona MacDonald [35]
Finalists this years included Saul Rose. [36]
1990
Ingrid Henderson [37]
1989
Simon Thoumire [38]
Thoumire notes that the finalists included Becky Taylor, and Coxon's article quotes her. [39] [40] Damien Barber was also a finalist. [41]
1988
Lynn Tocker
Thoumire relates that he met duo partner Ian Carr among the finalists of the first competition, and Coxson's article quotes Andy Cutting on his participation. [39] [4] [40]

See also

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References

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