Eurovision Young Musicians 2008

The Eurovision Young Musicians 2008 was the fourteenth edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians, held at the Rathausplatz in Vienna, Austria, on 9 May 2008. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk, musicians from seven countries participated in the televised final. This was the second time that the competition was held on an open-air stage and was the beginning of the annual Vienna Festival. Austria and broadcaster ORF previously hosted the contest in, and 2006.
A total of sixteen countries took part in the competition therefore a semi-final was held at the Theater an der Wien on 4 and 5 May 2008. All participants performed a classical piece of their choice accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Aleksandar Marković. and made their début while returned. Five countries decided not to participate, they were,,, and, while had ceased to exist since 2006.
Dionysios Grammenos of Greece won the contest, with Finland and Norway placing second and third respectively. Grammenos is the first woodwind player to win the competition. A new feature in 2008 was the audience prize, voted for by television viewers in the host country via SMS. The third prize winning Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing was the winner of this public vote.

WWW youngmusicians.tv

Location

Rathausplatz, a square outside the Wiener Rathaus city hall of Vienna, was the host location for the 2008 edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians final. The Theater an der Wien, a theatre in Vienna, Austria, hosted the semi-final round.

Format

and were the hosts of the 2008 contest. The interval act was Angelika Kirchschlager performing "One Life to Live" alone and "We Dream Together" with the Vienna Boys' Choir.

Results

Semi-final

A total of sixteen countries took part in the semi-final round of the 2008 contest, of which seven qualified to the televised grand final.

Final

Awards were given to the top three participants. The table below highlights these using gold, silver, and bronze. The placing results of the remaining participants is unknown and never made public by the European Broadcasting Union.

	Country	Performer	Instrument	Piece	Composer	Result
1		Jan Cricar	Saxophone	Pequeña Czarda	Pedro Iturralde
2		Anastasia Kobekina	Cello	Cello Concerto in C Major, 1st mov.	Joseph Haydn
3		Philip Achille	Harmonica	Chromatic Harmonica Concerto, 1st mov.	Jascha Spivakovsky
4		Roope Gröndahl	Piano	Piano Concerto in B-flat Minor, 3rd mov.	Peter Tchaikovsky	2
5			Clarinet	Clarinet Concerto, 4th mov.	Jean Françaix	1
6		Steven Bourne	Cello	Elegie	Gabriel Fauré
7		Eldbjørg Hemsing	Violin	Carmen Fantasie	Franz Waxman	3

Jury members

The jury members consisted of the following:

Semi-final

– Jeanette de Boer
– Günter Voglmayr
–
– Ranko Marković
–
– Jerzy Maksymiuk

Final

Broadcasting

Broadcasters in 18 countries received the competition live via the Eurovision Network and broadcast it in their territories. The competition was broadcast also in Iceland and Lithuania in addition to the competing countries.

Country

Broadcaster

Austria