Allen & Heath iLive digital system was selected to manage FOH sound for the Eurovision Young Musicians competition final, which was hosted live in Vienna’s Rathausplatz prestigious city hall square in front of an audience of 45,000 spectators.

Selected from 16 European contestants aged no more than 19, the 7 finalists from Slovenia, Russia, UK, Finland, Greece, Holland, and Norway performed live during the Gala Final which marked the opening of the annual Vienna Festival. The young musicians were accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Aleksandar Markovic, which also performed Leonard Bernstein’s CANDIDE overture during the interval.

Head of sound for the event was Adolf “Tucherl" Toegel who was using the iLive system – comprising an iDR10 Mixrack and iLive-144 control surface - with an EtherSound module to record the whole orchestra live via a 64-channel interface during rehearsals. This enabled him to ‘fine tune’ the mix at home, saving time during rehearsals.

The Eurovision Young Musicians is one of the most important international classical music competitions and is held every two years. Created in 1982, the aim of the competition is to offer a stage to young talent in the field of classical music and help them embark on an international career. The winners of this year’s competition were selected by an international jury panel, headed by renowned conductor, Sir Roger Norrington.

Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and produced this year by its Austrian Member ORF, together with the Vienna Music Festival, the competition was broadcast live on television across Europe, and feeds were provided by the iLive system. For the first time, the audience (both in the Rathausplatz and television viewers of ORF2), were able to vote by SMS, choosing their favourite musician of the year.