18 year old Stephen Sykes became the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist for 2009 at the RNCM in Manchester on Saturday evening.

Stephen's performances of Hoagy Carmichael's classic 'Stardust' and Philip Wilby's 'White Knuckle Ride' was enough to convince judges Professor Edward Gregson and Nigel Seaman that he should be declared the winner.

Winning comments

Both judges praised the finalists for their performances but in announcing Stephen as the winner, Professor Gregson told 4BR: "Stephen's winning performance had all technicalities and musicality that myself and Nigel had been searching for."

Stephen's winning performance had all technicalities and musicality that myself and Nigel had been searching forProfessor Edward Gregson

Best final ever

David Moore, Lauren Reeve-Rawlings and Matthew White were the other competitors in contention for the title in a final that was arguably the finest since the competition began.

Matthew White included his own composition entitled 'Improvisation' in his programme, whilst David Moore chose the music of Michael Nyman amongst his selection. Lauren Reeve-Rawlings chose Gilbert Vinter's 'Hunters Moon' and the familiar 'Rondo from Mozart's 4th Horn Concerto' for her title challenge.

All of the soloists were accompanied by Black Dyke conducted by Dr Nicholas Childs.

Final broadcast on Radio 2

The final will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Friday 27th February at 9.30pm.

A retrospective of the final will appear on 4BR soon.