One of the most gifted young pianists makes his debut with the Ulster Orchestra at the closing night finale on 22 May at the Belfast Waterfront.
At just 16, Benjamin Grosvenor has already played the Carnegie Hall in New York as well as a sold out performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
For his first performance in Belfast, he joins the Ulster Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Kenneth Montgomery to play Grieg’s Piano Concerto. Also on the programme will be Ravel’s Bolero and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances.
“We are delighted that our closing season concert features Benjamin Grosvenor. He’s one of the most exciting new talents on the classical music scene,” said Ulster Orchestra Chief Executive, David Byers. “Benjamin’s prodigious talent is very much at the service of the music he plays and it is fitting that we end our season by looking to the future.”
Born in Essex, Benjamin first came to prominence at the age of 11 as the outstanding winner of the Keyboard Final of the 2004 BBC Young Musician Competition. Born in July 1992, the youngest of five brothers, Benjamin began piano studies at the age of six with his mother, before later receiving lessons with Hilary Coates and Christopher Elton, with whom he now studies at the Royal Academy of Music, on a rarely-granted affiliated scholarship.
His concerto debuts at London's Barbican Hall and Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall were highly acclaimed, with the Daily Telegraph writing that his Mozart "was a colourist's dream, with rich dark hues and sparkling fanciful figurations". 2005 culminated in Benjamin's debut in a Chopin piano concerto at London’s Royal Albert Hall, in a concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations.
Benjamin made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2006, performing Ravel's G major concerto to acclaim, while further international debuts followed in Brazil and the Czech Republic in Chopin's 2nd Concerto, with the latter performance drawing the headline "Genius sets a very high benchmark", the review commenting that "all present knowledgeable of music knew they were hearing a kind of miracle".
In the summer of 2008 Benjamin recorded This and That for the B and W online music club and his first general release recording will be available in the summer of 2010. -- www.ulster-orchestra.org.uk
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