Wagenstroom clinched the gold medal and R25 000 prize from six finalists at the glittering finalists’ gala concert where he performed the Allegro con brio from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 2 in B flat Major, Op 19 with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra of the competition.

As part of his first prize he will be invited to perform in a concert at Hilton College near Pietermaritzburg in 2012. He also won the R4 000 Yaltah Menuhin Award for the best pianist, the R4 000 Pauline Nossel Prize for the best performance of a classical work by a pianist, as well as the R2 000 prize for the best performance of a concerto in the final round.

The category winners were Donne de Kock, 17, from Kuils River (strings), and Myles Roberts, 19 of Kraaifontein (wind). They each received R5 000 and a silver medal.

In a surprise twist, Conductor Martin Wettges, who conducted the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, and who is the Artistic Director of Opera Mauritius, invited two contestants to perform at the 2012 International Opera Festival. Wagenstroom will give a recital and Roberts will perform with the Opera Mauritius Orchestra.

In the category for the best performance of a South African composition, De Kock won R2 000 for her performance of Peter Klatzow’s Solo Sonata.

Four runner-up prizes of R2 500 and bronze medals were awarded to Caryn Reed, 16 of Bethlehem (piano); Steven Chang, 15 (piano); Lize van der Merwe, 16 of Bellville (soprano saxophone) and Lieva Starker, 16 of Oranjezicht (violin).

The competition for classical musicians aged between 14 and 19 offered prizes totalling R91 500. It started in April with 38 entrants who were auditioned in Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. The 20 selected musicians competed over the past week in three rounds at the Artscape Theatre. There are four categories, namely piano, string instruments, wind instruments and other orchestral instruments such as harp and percussion, however there were no entries for the latter.

They had to perform a variety of classical works to nine adjudicators representing a cross section of classical instruments. They are Professor Erik Albertyn, Anneke Lamont, Michael Maas, Brandon Phillips, Becky Steltzner, Liesl Stoltz, Denise Sutton, Daliwonga Tshangela and Helena van Heerden.

“The overall standard of this year’s competition was astonishingly high. All 20 contestants deserved to be part of the competition. This is the only youth music competition in the country where the finalists get the opportunity to play with a professional symphony orchestra as part of the competition,” says Michael Maas, CEO of Artscape.

Other than the finalists, the two most promising participants were Jeffrey Armstrong, 14 of Wellington (violin) and Steven Chang, 15 of Durbanville (piano).