The 2025 NYMC Winners
- Author: Frikkie Odendaal
The 2025 National Youth Music Competition (NYMC) concluded Saturday night, 6 December, at a rousing gala concert in the Endler Hall, Stellenbosch, South Africa. The concert and awards ceremony were live-streamed on the NYMC website. A video recording made by Mr Marek Pinski can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cxk1d3RMnk&list=RD1Cxk1d3RMnk&start_radio=1&t=23s
The three overall winners were fltr Hermanus Schmidt (gold), Yu Qing Peng (silver), Aileen Maas (competition coordinator), Kyrah Adams (bronze) and Prof Mario Nell (chairman of the NYMC).
During the 2025 National Youth Music Competition (NYMC), the 20 participants competed in four of the competition’s five categories, namely piano, string instruments, woodwind instruments and other instruments such as percussion, harp, marimba, etc.
There were five category winners, as two pianists shared the category prize for piano. They were Yu Qing Peng and Hermanus Schmidt. Cellist Rebecca Gray won the strings category, and marimba player Kyrah Adams was the winner of the other instruments category. Saxophonist James Cilliers took the laurels in the woodwinds category.