Young artists are being encouraged to put themselves forward for a prestigious music competition, which takes place later this year.

The Young Singer of Mann competition begins on Sunday, May, 31, at the Erin Arts Centre, Port Erin, and the organisers are looking for the best singers on the island, under the age of 16 years old, to take part.

For the first stage, singers who would like to enter are required to sing two songs of their own choice, lasting no longer than 10 minutes, and not including the set piece for the preceding Manx Music Festival.

The final will take place on Sunday, June 28, during the Mananan Festival of the Arts, also at the Erin Arts Centre.

Previous winners of the competition, which was founded by Barbara Gale in 1992 and is held every two years, are the noted local actor and theatre director Kristene Sutcliffe, music teacher Olivia Landells (nee Black) and Michelle Jamieson.

The current Young Singer of Mann is Erin Loach, who won at the age of 15 in 2018.

The competition is organised by John Bethell, from the Erin Arts Centre, who said that the competition has attracted some of the finest singers in the island who have gone on to become influential members of the Manx music an performing arts scene.

’If you look down the list of previous winners, you can see a great many people who have gone on to become music teachers, stage singers, theatre producers and actors in their own right,’ said John.

’This shows the quality of singer that the competition attracts and how valuable an event it is towards the development of youthful talent in the Isle of Man.

For more details on how to enter see erinartscentre.com