ABC Classic has revealed the three young musicians competing in the Grand Final of the 2026 Young Performers Awards (YPAs).

Announced on ABC Classic Breakfast with Megan Burslem, this year’s Grand Finalists are 14-year-old pianist Dillon Chan, 24-year-old cellist Charlotte Miles and 23-year-old violinist Beatrice Colombis.

Dillon Chan at the 2026 Young Performer Awards semifinals. Photo © Cameron Jamieson

Melbourne pianist Dillon Chan is a Year 9 music scholar at Camberwell Grammar School and is a Young Ambassador of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.

With his ensemble Kingussie Trio, he won Musica Viva Australia’s 2026 Strike A Chord competition.

His first place wins include the Steinway Youth Piano Competition (at the age of nine), the International Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youth, the Preston Symphony Orcehestra Youth Concerto Competition and the 2026 Young Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition as its youngest winner. He will perform Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto at the Grand Final.

Charlotte Miles. Portrait © Alexandra Mǔnch

Melbourne-born cellist Charlotte Miles studies at Germany’s Kronberg Academy – its first Australian student – and has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian String Quartet and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, among others.

She has over 100 Australian and international competition prizes to her name: the 2019 Australian National Young Virtuoso Award, the 2025 Melbourne Prize’s Professional Development Award and spots in the 2026 Queen Elisabeth International Cello Competition and the Budapest International Cello Competition. She will perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto at the Grand Final.

Beatrice Colombis performing at the 2026 Michael Hill International Violin Competition. Photo supplied

Born in Sydney, Italian-Australian Beatrice Colombis is studying at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. As a member of the Cousin Quartet, she won Musica Viva Australia’s inaugural Strike a Chord competition in 2020, and has twice been an Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

In June, Colombis won the 2026 Michael Hill International Violin Competition and will make her debut with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in October 2027. She will perform Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto at the Grand Final.

The finalists will perform a concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conductor Benjamin Northey on 3 November at the Sydney Opera House. The performances will be broadcast live on ABC Classic & ABC listen, with the video arriving on ABC TV and ABC iview on 5 November.

The winner of the Young Performer Award will be awarded $40,000 and the chance to record a solo studio album on the ABC Classic label. The runner-up earns a $15,000 cash prize, and third place, $5,000.

This year’s adjudication panel is chaired by harpist Mashall McGuire and also comprises pianist Aura Go, violinist Sophie Rowell, flautist and previous YPA winner Eliza Shephard and BBC Philharmonic director Adam Szabo.

Tickets for the 2026 Young Performers Award are on sale now. More about the 2026 Grand Finalists can be found here.