RISING STARS

Peter Moore

Peter Moore

12 year-old Peter Moore was awarded the pretigious BBC Young Musician of the Year title this year and as the youngest ever winner in the 30 years of the noteworthy competition showed the maturity and musicianship of a player far beyond his years.

Peter lives in Stalybridge, is Principal Trombone with Wingates Band and is a student at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester under the guidance of Andy Berryman. Belfast-born, he comes from a family of experienced brass players. Both his parents were professional French horn players in the Ulster Orchestra. His brother David is studying trumpet at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and all the family play in brass bands around the North West.

For Peter the BBCYM experience was an increasingly exciting journey culminating with his appearance in the Grand Final at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff in May with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Peter comments:  “Looking back on my progress in the competition, it has been a very long journey. The whole thing started for me in early July 2007 and only finished in May 2008. In that final week I arrived with my brother David after a three and a half hour train to Cardiff Central from Manchester Piccadilly. I met the other Grand Finalists that night as the BBC took us all out to dinner.

 “Rehearsals with the National Orchestra of Wales started on the Wednesday at the BBC studios and each of the finalists had an hour each day until Saturday morning, when we all had a final run through with the orchestra in the Millennium Centre. The auditorium was incredible. When you looked up, the height was overwhelming.

“I did the full Tomasi Concerto on the Saturday night with the National Orchestra of Wales, which was a great experience. We all came back on the Sunday and performed a movement of our concertos, which the adjudicators chose, plus a short five-minute piece of our own choice. I picked Jan Sandstrom’s Sang til Lotta. The hard work was all over then as we waited backstage anxiously! I couldn’t believe it when I was announced as the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008. It was all a dream until the next week when it finally sank in!”

And of course there are now new and equally exciting opportunities, “I have a Wigmore Hall Recital and a concerto with the BBC National Symphony Orchestra of Wales in October. There is also talk of a tour to the Gulf States and possibly a trip to Frankfurt as well as confirmed solo recitals and many solo spots with brass bands in the next year. I also have a concerto in April 2009 and one in the 2009-2010 season.” 

Watch Peter’s complete performance online at
www.bbc.co.uk/youngmusician/sites/competition/brass.shtml

Visit the official website for the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain
www.bandstand.demon.co.uk/nybb.htm