Australian Music Broadcasting Societies’ National Young Virtuoso Award
Held 23 November 2025, 2:30pm, St John’s Church, Halifax St, Adelaide.
Congratulations to Pianist Rueben Tsang from Brisbane – the 2025 National Young Virtuoso Award winner.
Rueben Tsang with Maestro Nicholas Braithwaite, who presented the prize.
The adjudicators, Julian Cochran and Joshua Oates, made special mention of the very high standard of performance from all the finalists in the competition.
It was good to welcome many visitors from the other states who had come to Adelaide for the event, including two colleagues from 2mbs in Sydney.
The audience was treated to a wonderful selection of demanding repertoire from the performers; the details are below. You can also view the recording of the event here.
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Why we hold the Young Virtuoso Awards.
The Young Virtuoso Awards program is an initiative of Music Broadcasting Society community radio stations in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia, which make up the Australian Fine Music Network.
As community radio stations with a special interest in supporting classical music, we are pleased to hold the Young Virtuoso Award events as a positive way of supporting upcoming young Australian classical musicians.
Each year, state Young Virtuoso Award events take place in each state. The overall winners of these competitions are eligible to take part in the National Young Virtuoso Award competition.
The location of the National event rotates through each participating jurisdiction.
In 2025, Radio 5mbs is excited to hold the National YVA in Adelaide in collaboration with our colleagues interstate.
Nicholas Braithwaite,
Conductor Laureate of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, is a great supporter of the Young Virtuoso Award. He writes: “What you do is really, really important.” Nicholas does a lot for the young musicians of Adelaide and recently conducted the Adelaide Youth Orchestra in their Elder Hall concert. Hear Nicholas speak to Emily Sutherland on the Kaleidoscope program.
Nicholas will be presenting the prize to the winner of the National competition in November.
The contestants (read more..)
Zachary Li – Piano (Australian Capital Territory)
Samuel Barber – Excursions, Op. 20 No. 1
Felix Mendelssohn – Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Op. 35 No. 1
Michael Kieran Harvey – Pink Nautilus
Cecilia Xu – French Horn (Victoria)
Eugène Bozza – En Forêt
Reinhold Glière – Valse Triste
Catherine Likhuta – I Threw a Shoe at a Cat: Yazz
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat major: Rondo
Jenny Su – Piano (South Australia)
Franz Liszt – Légende S.175 No.1 St Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds
Debussy – Feux d’artifice (Fireworks)
Elijah Baker – Trombone (New South Wales)
Zygmunt Stojowski – Fantasy
Henri Dutilleux – Choral Cadence et Fugato
Reuben Tsang – Piano (Queensland)
Carl Vine – Anne Landa Preludes: “Thumper”, “Tarantella” and “Romance”
Frederic Chopin – Scherzo No.4 in E major, Op.54
Our Adjudicators
Joshua Oates has been the Principal Oboe of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra since 2020 and is a sought after musician across the country. Joshua studied with some of today’s leading oboists, undertaking a masters in Germany with internationally acclaimed oboist Philippe Tondre, and prior to this, he was a Sydney Symphony Orchestra fellow under the mentorship of Diana Doherty, Shefali Pryor, Alexandre Oguey. During his time in Germany, Joshua played in theatre orchestras in Aachen, Düsseldorf and Saarbrücken, as well as guest principal with Cappella Aquileia Heidenheim. He has also played as guest principal in most of Australia’s professional orchestras.
Joshua’s undergraduate studies took place at the Elder Conservatorium of Music Adelaide with Celia Craig, where he graduated with first class honours. In 2021, he returned to the Elder Conservatorium as oboe teacher, and is passionate about working with the next generation of Australia’s oboists. He is a keen recitalist and chamber musician, and had his premiere as solo artist at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in 2023. Joshua has recently enjoyed the opportunity to appear as soloist with the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra performing Koehne’s ‘In Flight Entertainment’ as well as regularly with the ASO.
Julian Cochran
Moving to Australia at a young age with his Scottish family, Julian Cochran was awarded an early advancement scholarship, at the age of 14, to the music conservatory for advanced piano studies.
Julian Cochran has composed a comprehensive body of piano works. As well as shorter pieces, often in dance forms, there are large scale piano works including seven Fantasias and the five-part piano cycle Pegasus’ Travels. There is also a large body of music for orchestra, chamber orchestra and various chamber ensembles.
The International Cochran Piano Competition is one of few piano competitions devoted entirely to the works of a single composer and is held in Warsaw, Poland. The International Cochran Music Festival has had five editions and is held annually in Europe.
For the last eight years Cochran has been based in Monaco where he continues to focus on composing.
Adelaide is indebted to Julian Cochrane for envisaging and building the North Adelaide Baroque Hall.
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