The jury included Mauro Bucarelli, Anne Evans, Patrick Harrild, Gerard Schwarz and Yuri Temirkanov.

Twenty conductors were short-listed from over 58 applications, according to BBC Music magazine. Three finalists were selected after these twenty conducted the Royal Academy of Music Orchestra during the semi-finals.

Dworzynski made his conducting debut at the age of 15, working as an assistant conductor with the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. In 2003, he won the Lovro von Matacic Competition in Zagreb; in 2005 he took first prize in the International Conductors Competition in Suwon, South Korea. Dworzynski is currently doing postgraduate studies in the Hochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin.

The biennial competition, founded in 1990, is open to conductors under the age of 35 who are citizens of European Union countries, although it was initially open to only British candidates.