Howard Greenwood Memorial Concert

Howard Greenwood was one of the founder members of the Richmond Concert Society about 60 years ago. At the beginning he often ran it single-handedly but over the years he slowly persuaded fellow music lovers to join a committee to help in the multitude of essential tasks. Howard was always responsible for the selection of musicians to play in the concerts and the music to be played. He eventually became the Music Director and, in recent years, Artistic Adviser.

Howard first heard Luka Okros at a concert in Perivale and liked his playing very much. The pianist was invited to play for the RCS at a concert in December 2019.

Luka Okros was born in 1991 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He made his national debut at the age of five, before studying at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and later at Royal College of Music in London. On graduating, he won the Jaques Samuel Intercollegiate Piano Competition in 2014.

His competition successes include the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the Valencia Iturbi Prize International Competition, Hannover Chopin International Piano Competition, Morocco Philharmonic International Piano Competition, and FAZ Audience Award 2019 at the International German Piano Award.

He made his USA debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of 18, and by the age of 25, he had performed in over 30 countries. In the last concert season, he has given solo recitals in Oslo, Vienna, Brussels, Helsinki, Budapest, Reykjavík, Tbilisi, Kyiv, Berlin, Paris, Berlin, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Montevideo, culminating in a sell-out concert on London’s Southbank in July 2019.

His performance has been praised by The Guardian’s Observer as “An impressive display of virtuosic pianism”. Spanish newspaper Levante described him as “An Artist of the Sound”.

Highlights of the 2020/2021 season include performances in, Finland, France, Iceland, Georgia, Germany, Hong-Kong, Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

In addition to his career as a pianist, Luka works on creating an album of his compositions. One of the pieces was filmed and premiered by Het Concertgebouw’s Sessions. Scores of his works are published by UK-based Master Music Publications.

As a social media influencer, Luka’s Instagram page has over 84K followers.