Eurovision Young Musicians

The Eurovision Young Musicians (French: L'Eurovision des Jeunes Musiciens), often shortened to EYM, or Young Musicians, is a biennial music competition for European musicians that are 18 years old or younger. It is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and broadcast on television throughout Europe, with some countries holding national heats.

The first edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians took place in Manchester, United Kingdom on the 11 May 1982 and 6 countries took part. The contest was won by Markus Pawlik from West Germany, who played the piano. The most recent edition of this competition took place in Cologne, Germany on the 31 May 2014 and was won by Ziyu He, who played the violin for Austria.

The current Executive Supervisor of the competition, on behalf of the EBU, is Vladislav Yakovlev.

History

The Eurovision Young Musicians, inspired by the success of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, is a biennial competition organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for European musicians that are 18 years old or younger. Some participating countries held national heats in order to select their representatives for the contest. The first edition of the Eurovision Young Musicians took place in Manchester, United Kingdom on the 11 May 1982 and 6 countries took part.

The Musicians (Caravaggio)

The Musicians or Concert of Youths (c. 1595) is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610). It is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it has been since 1952. It underwent extensive restoration in 1983.

Caravaggio entered the household of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte sometime in 1595, and The Musicians is thought to have been his first painting done expressly for the cardinal. His biographer, the painter Baglione, says he "painted for the Cardinal youths playing music very well drawn from nature and also a youth playing a lute," the latter presumably being The Lute Player, which seems to form a companion-piece to The Musicians.

The picture shows four boys in quasi-Classical costume, three playing various musical instruments or singing, the fourth dressed as Cupid and reaching towards a bunch of grapes.

Caravaggio seems to have composed the painting from studies of two figures. The central figure with the lute has been identified with Caravaggio's companion Mario Minniti, and the individual next to him and facing the viewer is possibly a self-portrait of the artist. The cupid bears a strong resemblance to the boy in Boy Peeling Fruit, done a few years before, and also to the angel in Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy.