Violinist takes the 2024 NYMC crown

The 17-year-old violinist, Emma Steenkamp, clinched the gold medal at the 2024 National Youth Music Competition (NYMC) that concluded on Saturday 7 December with a magnificent gala concert at the Endler Hall in Stellenbosch with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.

Hailing from Plumstead, Cape Town, Emma is currently a student at the Wells Cathedral School in Somerset, United Kingdom.

She was crowned the overall winner of the competition, walking away with a whopping R55 000 in prize money. Two pianists, Yu Qing Peng, 16, and Chanda Bupe Lupambo, 19, were respectively second and third, palming in R15 500 and R10 000.

Yu Qing is a learner at the SAHETI School in Bedfordview and Chanda is a BMus Student at Stellenbosch University.

The category winners were Yu Qing Peng, piano, Emma Steenkamp, strings, James Cilliers, 18, wood instruments (saxophone) and Kyrah Adams 18, other instruments (marimba). Each pocketed R6 000 and a silver medal.

There were five category runners-up, each earning a bronze medal and R3 500. They were pianists Christian-Peter Hiemstra, 14, Chanda Bupe Lupambo and Hermanus Schmidt, 16. They were joined by Rebecca Gray, 14, strings (cello) and Kian Goliath, 17, woodwind instruments (saxophone).

Five of the candidates, who did not play in the third and fourth rounds, were recognised as the most promising in two of the five NYMC categories. They each, won R3 500. They were Bernadette Goemans, 19, Helen Lin-Lin Liu, 19, and Jayden Li, 15, in the strings category. Quinn Goliath, 15, and Talitha Pienaar, 18, in the category of woodwind instruments.

Emma Steenkamp won three of the special prizes, namely the prize for the best performance of a South African work, the Polina Burdukova prize for the best performance of a work by a Russian composer by a string instrumentalist, as well as the prize for the best performance of a concerto in the final round. Yu Qing Peng walked away with the Pauline Nossel prize for the best performance of a classical work by a pianist.

Prof Mario Nell, non-voting chairman and Aileen Maas, coordinator of the NYMC with the three overall winners, Chanda Bupe Lupambo, Emma Steenkamp and Yu Qoing Peng.