Thirty-three-year-old conductor Jason Lai won the BBC’s Young Conductors Workshop in February 2002 and has conducted some of the world’s top orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English Touring Opera, London Sinfonietta and the BBC Singers.

Jason started his musical studies at the age of 12 when he took cello, piano and composition lessons, which continued with the help of a scholarship at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester.

He studied at Worcester College, Oxford, where he became music director of the Oxford University Philharmonia, and then went on to achieve a Masters in composition and a Diploma in cello at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

As a young star prodigy himself, Jason has first-hand experience of the pressure of competitions, the qualities needed to emerge as a winner and the determination and dedication it takes to carve out a successful career in the classical music industry.