RUPERT Egerton-Smith will be the soloist at a Chiltern Camerata concert, as part of the Wycombe Arts Festival.

The concert on May 17 will see conductor Sam Laughton take the helm of the orchestra to perform music by Beethoven, Wagner and Rota.

The centrepiece of the concert is a much-loved Beethoven composition – his Piano Concerto No. 5 the Emperor. Rupert Egerton-Smith, an English-born pianist, combines deep musical sensitivity with a scintillating technique. He has performed extensively in venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Paris’s Salle Gaveau, London’s Cadogan Hall and St-Martin-in-the-Fields, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Sursock Palace in Beirut, and the Cherementiev Palace in St.Petersburg.

In France, his performances of Scarlatti and Balakirev’s Islamey have been broadcast on France 2 and Radio Classique. Concerto appearances have included Grieg, Mozart 23rd, Rachmaninov 2nd and 3rd, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue, Ravel in G major and Shostakovich No.2.

In 2013 he won a first prize in the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition.

The concert also includes a performance of the popular Siegfried Idyll, composed by Richard Wagner for his wife Cosima after the birth of their son Siegfried. The work was first performed as an intimate family gift at their villa near Lucerne on Christmas morning 1870. Originally intended to remain a private composition, Wagner re-worked it for a small chamber orchestra, and we shall be performing it in that version.

They will also be performing music by the Italian composer Nino Rota. His Suite of tuneful and characterful Dances written for Luchino Visconti’s 1963 film ‘Il Gattopardo’ (the Leopard) are fine examples of the work of this celebrated composer, pianist, conductor and academic. He is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Visconti and the Coppola ‘Godfather’ films. The concert is on May 17 at 7.30pm at All Saints Parish Church in High Wycombe. Tickets are £12 (£10 concessions). Under 18s free admission.

Tickets from tourist information offices at High Wycombe (Main Library); Marlow (Institute Road) and Princes Risborough or call 01494 883112. And on the door on the evening of the performance.

Go to www.chiltern-camerata.org.uk