Ben here a while

BENJAMIN GROSVENOR (PIANO), UO/KENNETH MONTGOMERY NCH, Dublin Wed 8pm €10-€35 01-4170000; Waterfront Hall, Belfast Fri 22nd …

BENJAMIN GROSVENOR (PIANO), UO/KENNETH MONTGOMERY NCH, Dublin Wed 8pm €10-€35 01-4170000; Waterfront Hall, Belfast Fri 22nd 7.45pm £8-£23.50 048-90668798

Haven’t had enough of piano playing after the Axa Competition? Want to hear someone who wouldn’t qualify on age grounds even to enter that competition? Benjamin Grosvenor is to hand.

He was just 11 when he won the keyboard final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition five years ago. He’s since been heard on major stages in Britain, and in New York’s Carnegie Hall. His Dublin début, in the Grieg concerto with the Ulster Orchestra under Kenneth Montgomery, is on Wednesday, and he’ll be heard in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall two days later. The programme also includes Rachmaninov’s Symphony Dances and Ravel’s ever-popular Bolero.

Wednesday’s concert will be the last appearance by the Ulster Orchestra in Dublin for a while. The orchestra’s Dublin concerts have fallen victim to the deteriorating economic situation.

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor