JANUARY 22 2005, BATH: At just 21, British pianist Simon Callaghan has already begun to establish an impressive career as a solo artist, performing in major venues and with many orchestras around the UK.

Local audiences will have a chance to judge for themselves when he appears at the Pump Room, Bath, on January 22 in the first of this year's Bath Young Recital Artists' concerts.

Callaghan took his first piano lesson at eight, started winning scholarships and eventually studied at London Royal College of Music under Yonty Solomon, the former pupil of Dame Myra Hess.

He has been a prizewinner in several important competitions, including the Liverpool Young Musician of the Year.

Following his concerto dbut in 2001, Callaghan performed concertos by Beethoven, Chopin, Hummel, Liszt, Mozart and Grieg, most recently, Liszt's Piano Concerto in E flat with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a keen chamber musician, last year he gave the world premiere performance of his own restored chamber arrangement of Chopin's Piano Concerto in E minor for piano and string quintet, playing Schubert's Trout Quintet in the same concert.

The Bath programme includes the Italian Concerto (JS Bach), Beethoven's Sonata in F minor, Appassionata, two pieces from musicals by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and Schumann's Arabeske and Carnaval.

Tickets (£5 unreserved) are available on the door or from Tom Clarke, (01225) 314344.

Reg Burnard