A ROYAL composer is urging talented young musicians from the Pembrokeshire area to bid for a prestigious title.

Entrants are being sought for the 2025 Pendine Young Musician of Wales at the 53rd North Wales International Music Festival in St Asaph Cathedral, September 11-20.

The competition is being masterminded by Professor Paul Mealor, from Connah’s Quay, the festival’s Artistic Director, who wrote the music for the King’s Coronation and the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, now the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Following on from its hugely successful launch in 2024, entries are now open for soloists and instrumentalists to snap up the chance to be crowned the best in Wales.

There are no restrictions on the genres of music eligible. Last year entries included classical, jazz and folk styles. Instrumentalists and singers are welcomed; the only stipulation is that all the performances should be solo, although accompanists are permitted.

Pendine Young Musician of Wales is being funded by the festival’s headline sponsors, the Pendine Park care organisation via the Pendine Arts and Community Trust which supports community and arts activities. The winner will lift the silver Pendine Trophy along with a cash prize of £2,000, following in the footsteps of the competition’s first ever winner, harp virtuoso Heledd Wynn Newton.

There’ll be generous cash prizes for the other finalists and an unmissable opportunity to perform on the festival stage at St Asaph Cathedral.

Runner-up prize is £1,000 and the third and fourth placed musicians will receive £500 each.

The performances of all the finalists will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Cymru.

Prof Mealor, who devised the competition in association with arts-loving Pendine Park owners Mario Kreft MBE and his wife Gill, said: “Opportunities like this don’t come along very often and they can be an important stepping stone to an auspicious music career.”

Mario Kreft said: “It remains early days, but this new Pendine Young Musician of Wales competition has all the makings of becoming a very prestigious event.”

The competition is open to young musicians who were under 21 on January 1, 2025, and either born in Wales or are living in Wales or who are Welsh nationals living abroad.

Anyone interested in entering will need to upload a video or audio clip of a performance, no more than five minutes long, to submit with their application form via the festival’s website – nwimf.com by Friday, July 4.

A shortlist of eight will then be selected to go forward to the live semi-finals to be held at the festival on Tuesday, September 16.

From these performances, the judges will select four to compete in the Grand Final at St Asaph Cathedral on Wednesday, September 17, at 7pm.

Competition judges are Professor Helena Gaunt, Principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama; Rebecca Evans CBE, World-renowned Operatic Soprano; and Alun Jones, NWIMF Executive Vice-Chair & Former Principal of Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester.

Festival tickets go on sale from Thursday, June 12.