Nicola Lisle talks to pianist Tom Poster about his forthcoming recital

When Tom Poster steps on to the platform at the Holywell Music Room on Sunday, he will be back on home territory.

The former Cherwell School pupil grew up in Oxford from the age of 12, and has gone on to achieve international recognition as one of the most gifted pianists of his generation. But the 32-year-old, who is now based in London, loves returning to Oxford.

“It’s always nice to come home and play to a friendly crowd, and the Holywell is one of my favourite places in the world,” he says. “It has fantastic acoustics, and it’s just the right size. It fits a reasonable number of people in, but it’s intimate enough that you feel you can communicate quite directly.”

Just before Christmas Tom returned to his former school for a certificate presentation and talk. “It was really funny being back because it’s like nothing’s changed, and yet of course the world has moved on in lots of ways.

“I have very fond memories of Cherwell School. The fact that I thought about going away to music school and actually ended up just staying at my local comprehensive is something I’m incredibly glad about, because I had a relatively normal existence going to the Cherwell and then doing lots of local music activities.

“So I have very happy memories of Oxford and it’s always a treat to be back.”

The seeds of Tom’s musical talent were sown early; he started playing the piano at the age of five, and took up several other instruments as well. But it was in Oxford that those seeds germinated and flourished. He gained valuable experience with the County Music Service and County Youth Orchestra, before finally deciding in his late teens that the piano was his main interest.

“As a kid, what I really wanted to be was a composer — I’m not quite sure how I ended up playing the piano!” he laughs. “Now I wouldn’t swap it for anything.”

Presumably Tom comes from a musical background? “No, not at all! My parents love music, but they weren’t concert-goers and they aren’t musicians. They listened to a lot of music but it was more the music of the ‘60s, and that’s what I grew up listening to. I have quite eclectic tastes still. But classical music was very much my own discovery.”

Tom’s recital on Sunday features some of his favourite pieces, Mozart’s Adagio in B minor and Beethoven’s Sonata in D Major, the ‘Pastorale’. “The Pastorale is really the centre point. “The Mozart is an enigmatic, late work, and then there’s a set of song transcriptions by Schubert and some Gershwin songs to finish in a slightly lighter vein.”

The song transcriptions tie in with Tom’s new recording, In Dance and Song, which has just been released by Champs Hill Records, and copies will be available to buy at Sunday’s concert. “It’s my first solo recital CD, and it features lots of different works inspired by this theme of song and dance.”

You can catch Tom in Oxford again in February, when he joins the City of Oxford Orchestra for a Valentine’s Day concert (www.sje-oxford.org).