YOUNG ISLE OF WIGHT PIANIST THOMAS LUKE TO PERFORM AT MEDINA THEATRE

Thomas Luke, who won the keyboard category of BBC Young Musician in 2020, is set to perform with the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra at Medina Theatre in Newport on Saturday (7th July). The young Isle of Wight pianist will be playing Party Piece by Richard Rodney Bennett and Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto. Since winning the BBC Young Musician title, the young pianist from the Isle of Wight has seen his career take off, and he has been regularly been invited to perform all around the country. He frequently performs for the West Wight Arts Association at the Freshwater Memorial Hall, most recently joining the Piatti String Quartet to play Dvorak’s Piano Quintet Op. 81 with them there. He has also performed with the IOW Symphony Orchestra at Medina Theatre, last year performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 to a sell out audience. Thomas studies piano on a full scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London as a Margaret Mount Scholar. He studies with Professor Vanessa Latarche and receives further guidance from Alim Beisembayev. In March this year, Thomas arranged the English musician and producer Jacob Collier’s song ‘Little Blue’ for several pianos. He recorded and produced it all in the space of a couple of days and uploaded it to YouTube. Within days, the video had found its way to Jacob Collier himself, who was so impressed with it that he asked to meet Thomas at his new album release concert in London a few days later. Thomas is currently in Texas for a month as a Young Artist Performer at the PianoTexas international festival, where he is performing recitals and taking part in masterclasses. He secured his place there through tough international competition to be one of only 24 young pianists selected from around the world. In October, Thomas will be flying out to China to compete in the Xiamen International Piano Competition. He secured his place in the competition by becoming one of just 30 pianists from around the world selected from the preliminary round to go through to the main rounds of the competition in China.