22nd National Eisteddfod Academy Young Performer Awards Competition
The 22nd National Eisteddfod Academy Young Performer Awards competition, presented annually by the National Eisteddfod Academy (NEA), a leading non-profit organisation for youth development in music, dance, drama and visual arts, is reaching its final stages for 2025.
This competition was again open to all amateur talented young performers who excelled in the National Eisteddfod of South Africa® and other festivals during 2024. Following on from the quarter-final rounds that involved a total of 237 individuals and groups, 104 young artists and groups will now take to the Roodepoort Theatre’s stage on 9 and 10 May in the four semi-final rounds of this competition.
They will compete in four separate events in the following four categories:
- 9 May 2025, 15:00 – 17:30 Dance Section
- 9 May 2025, 19:00 – 21:30 Classical & Crossover Music Section
- 10 May 2025, 15:00 – 17:30 Speech and Drama Section
- 10 May 2025, 19:00 – 21:30 Contemporary Music Section.
The winners of these four events will then compete in the Final Round on Sunday 11 May at 15:00 for the gold, silver and bronze medals, when they will be adjudicated by a panel of adjudicators comprising well-known local artists and personalities.
The adjudicators’ panels for these events comprise Harold van Buuren, Dr Tiffany Higgo, Magda De Vries, Lesta Erasmus, Pinto Ferreira, Gill Girard, Linelle Wimbles, Carly Graham, Sigongile Mngoma, Tebogo Kgobokoe, Matt Stern, Christine Ludwig, Samantha Peo and Aneliswa Phewa, amongst others.
Many past winners and participants in this competition have gone on to excel on the professional stage. Top achievers in Ballet – Andile Ndlovu and Camille Bracher forged international careers: Ndlovu, with the Washington Ballet and Bracher, the Royal Ballet Company; the young pianist, Iman Bulbulia, performed internationally and at the prestigious Carnegie Hall; Carmen Pretorius, now an established musical theatre and TV star in the entertainment industry with leading roles in Mamma Mia, Cinderella, Jersey Boys, Chicago and others and the actor Cantona James, the winner of the drama section in 2015 Young Performer Awards, received the Best Upcoming Artists Award at the 2019 Woordfees and was nominated as Best Newcomer in the Royalty Soapie Awards 2020, received a kykNET Fiësta Award, Best Performance in Spinners at the inaugural Dakar Series.
Ismail Mahomed, a judge at the 2013 Awards, former National Arts Festival director and CEO of the Market Theatre Foundation, now Director at the Centre for Creative Arts: University of KZN, remarked:
“If the NEA Award-winners represent the next generation of artists, I am filled with great hope for the creative industries.”
This statement highlights the significance of this project in developing our future stars.
Tickets for the Semi-final rounds will be available at the door. Tickets for the Final round on 11 May can be booked online through Webtickets here.
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About the National Eisteddfod Academy NPC
The National Eisteddfod Academy (NEA) is a registered non-profit company that creates opportunities for youth development in the arts. The activities of the NEA provide various opportunities where young performers can develop and showcase their talents across the full spectrum of artistic and cultural diversity. Considering that, since the founding of the organisation in 1997 the annual NEA Eisteddfod activities have involved more than 575 000 participants in various rural and urban regions, it is fair to say that the NEA is an organisation that has had a significant impact on youth development in the arts. Notwithstanding the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic the NEA also continued with activities throughout 2020 – 2021 by introducing various alternatives for participation in the annual eisteddfod. The National Eisteddfod Academy launched the Young Performer Awards as a next level competition platform for young performers in 2004; some ten years later a Young Artist Awards competition for visual arts was initiated. The National Eisteddfod Young Performer Awards Competition for young performers in music, dance and drama, is presented annually and has awarded more than R500 000 in prizes in recent years. Mimi Coertse, Ismail Mahomed, Sibongile Mngoma, the late Gloria Bosman, Heinz Winkler, Relebogile Mabotja, Bianca le Grange, Vinette Ebrahim, Iain MacDonald, Roderick Jaftha, Diane Coutts, Petronel Malan, Henry Mylne, Harold van Buuren, Heidi Edelin and Izak Davel are a few of the many, well-known luminaries that have adjudicated in the past.
