THE 2010 BBC Young Musician of the Year, pianist Lara Melda, comes to Dorset and Somerset for the June Concerts in the West series, with recitals at Bridport Arts Centre at 11.30am and Ilminster Arts Centre at 7.30pm on Friday 21st June and the Dance House, Crewkerne, on Saturday 22nd at 7,30.

The talented young pianist, on her debut with the music charity that promotes rising stars of the chamber music scene, made BBC Proms and Royal Albert Hall debut in 2023 as one of the soloists performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Andrew Gourlay in an evening devoted to previous Young Musician winners.

She performs regularly in Turkey and made her debut at the International Music Festival in Istanbul in June 2011. Following the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Lara has been working tirelessly on fundraising projects and events helping those affected.

In the summer of 2016 Lara graduated from the Royal College of Music with a first class honours degree. Most recently she curated a critically acclaimed multi sensory Van Gogh immersive concert experience in collaboration with Exhibition Hub, where the audience and Lara’s playing become intertwined in a journey through Van Gogh’s life – the music and art together evoking different emotions, feelings and memories for each person.

Her programme for the evening concerts is Liszt’s Étude in D flat major, Un Sospiro, and Sonata in B minor, Chopin’s Sonata No 3 and Nocturne No 3 and Beethoven’s Sonata No 17, The Tempest. She will play the Beethoven and the Liszt B minor sonata at Bridport.