The competition was established in 1978 by Humphrey Burton and Walter Todds, both of whom are former members of the BBC Television Music Department. Michael Hext, a trombonist, was the inaugural winner. In 1994, the usage of percussion instruments was first permitted, alongside the existing keyboard, string, brass and woodwind categories. Since its introduction, the allowance of percussion instruments has increased interest in the competition among young people. The competition has five stages, which consist of regional auditions, category auditions, category finals, semi-finals and the final. As a result of the success of the competition, the Eurovision Young Musicians competition was initiated in 1982. To date, there have been 17 winners, the most recent being Lara Ömeroglu. Peter Moore holds the title for the youngest winner of the competition, at age 12.

Finals for the 2004 competition took place on May 2 at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh and were televised on BBC Two. The trophy used for this year's competition was designed by John Rocha at Waterford Crystal.[A]

The 2006 finals were held at The Sage Gateshead on 20 May 2006. The adjudicators for this competition were Marin Alsop, Carlos Bonell, Peter Sadlo, Thea King, Sergei Nakariakov, Angela Hewitt and Kathryn McDowell. The overall number of finalists was significantly smaller for this competition.[A]

The 2008 finals took place at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on 10 May 2008 and 11 May 2008. In celebration of thirty years of the competition broadcasting, the performances lasted for two days.[A]