Concert by young musician finalist not to be missed

Young Musician of the Year finalist Ethan Loch will perform at the Caird Hall on March 29. (BBC/Dan Prince)

Ethan is a 17-year-old Scottish pianist who won the Keyboard Category Final of the BBC Young Musician competition last September.

He went on to perform at the Grand Final at Bridgewater Hall with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, with the performance broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4.

Ethan was born in 2004 and diagnosed completely blind since birth. As a toddler, he would explore the piano for hours, imitating his first inspiration, Rowlf the piano-playing dog from the Muppet Show, and his other inspiration, the DVD ‘Horowitz in Vienna’, was played relentlessly.

His formal piano lessons began at age 4 with his mother, and he now studies with Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

This season Ethan is performing solo recitals throughout the UK and joins the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland as concerto soloist. Ethan has also won the Scottish International Youth Piano Competition (2019), seventh James Waterhouse Loretto Piano Competition "Advanced" class (2017), Premio Asoluto prize at the 15th International 'Giuseppe Sciacca' awards (2016) and was a finalist in the EPTA Belgium International Piano Competition (2018).

Judy Dobbie, Director of Leisure & Culture Dundee said: "We're delighted to celebrate both the Caird Hall Centenary and World Piano Day with this free concert by Ethan Loch. What better way to mark these milestones than with a performance on the Caird Hall Steinway Concert Grand Piano by a young and talented musician who has already made waves in the music world? This is an event not to be missed."

The concert is free, no tickets are required and the doors open at 1.30pm with Ethan’s performance beginning at 2pm.

It is one of a series of events being organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Caird Hall, which was opened on October 23 by the then Prince of Wales.