US pianist Syme is at home here in Ireland

American classical pianist, David Syme, has played to audiences of 10,000 at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Centre, in New York, and the Kennedy Centre, in Washington DC.

But what excites him most is playing in Ireland, where his career has been given “a real new lease of life.” Based for some of the year in Castletownbere — he has been coming here for eight years — Syme will return to Fota House on Friday. His programme will include masterpieces of the piano by Chopin, Liszt, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Debussy and Gershwin.

A graduate of the renowned Juilliard School of Music and a protégé of the late master, Jorge Bolet, Syme’s following here is based on concerts he performs in his home in West Cork.