The Award Young Musician of the Year given by the Zagreb Philharmonic and Hrvatska poštanska banka (HP Bank) for 2009 was awarded to soprano Marija Kuhar Šoša. The jury members were: the dean of the Music Academy in Zagreb Mladen Janjanin, Miljenko Puljić (Zf) Franjo Sinković (HPB), Dražen Sirišćević (Lisinski Concert Hall), Zlatko Madžar (Croatian Radio), conductor Ivan Repušić and tenor Tomislav Mužek. Their opinion was that Marija Kuhar Šoša was very successful on the operatic stage and on concert podiums alike.

The award was presented by Miljenko Puljić, the Managing Director of the Zagreb Philharmonic and by the representative of Hrvatska poštanska banka Franjo Sinković at the beginning of the Philharmonic Ball. The award consists of €10,000 and an art sculpture.