Ethan was born in 2004 and diagnosed completely blind since birth. As a toddler, he would explore the piano for hours imitating his first inspiration, Rowlf – the piano-playing dog from the Muppet Show. His other inspiration, the DVD “Horowitz in Vienna”, he played relentlessly. His formal piano lessons began at age four with his mother, but he now studies with Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has been composing since early childhood and loves to tell imaginative stories in his compositions.

Ethan’s first major concert was at a Music in Lanark event where he also debuted his first major composition work, “Wallace at Lanark”, illustrating the life of Scottish hero William Wallace. He was also the focus of a BBC radio documentary called ‘Batman and Ethan’, about the freedom a blind child can experience through working with the talented teacher of the blind, Daniel Kish.

In 2016, Ethan was awarded his first major international award at the Vatican. He received the Premio Asoluto prize at the 15th International ‘Giuseppe Sciacca’ awards in Rome, for his ability to create music “full of colours” as an inspiration to all. In 2017, Ethan won the 7th James Waterhouse Loretto Piano Competition “Advanced” class. As part of that prize, he performed at Steinway Hall in London. Ethan has twice participated in the wonderful Festival of Chopin in Mazovia, Poland. He won the 3rd and then the 4th categories. He performed at Chopin’s house and later for the Warsaw Music Society. He was also a finalist in the EPTA Belgium International Piano Competition in 2018.

In 2019, Ethan received his ATCL (Associate of Trinity College London) with a mark of 92/100 at the age of 14. During this year, Ethan also won the Scottish International Youth Piano Competition as part of the Moray Prize at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Over covid lockdown 2020, every Saturday at 8pm Ethan showcased a short 15-minute concert on his YouTube channel. He recorded 44 concerts over the year.

In 2022, after a year of competing, Ethan won the 2022 BBC Young Musician Keyboard Category Final with the judges saying, “Ethan found orchestral colours on the piano like no-one else can.” He was also featured on The List, Top 100 People to Watch in 2022.

In the summer of 2023 Ethan was awarded a place at the Verbier Academy as a piano soloist.

Ethan’s first CD, ‘Mysterious Pathways Volume One’ was featured on Classic FM and on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio documentary featuring his collaboration with the Canadian artist Tony Luciani who painted the cover image. His second album, ‘Mysterious Improvisations 2020’, is a collection of one-shot, single-take classical improvisations.

Ethan has made three TV appearances to date. The first was on BBC’s The One Show, and the second in May 2018 on the ITV show Little Big Shots where he enjoyed chatting to Dawn French and performing both on his own and as a duet with young Romanian singer and harpist Daria. His third appearance was on the BBC Young Musician 2022 competition where he won the category final (keyboard) and performed the Chopin Piano Concerto No.1. The final was won by percussionist Jordan Ashman.

Ethan is busy studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and playing around the UK in both solo and concerto work including concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Mark Wigglesworth, Manchester Camerata Orchestra as a guest artist, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

See Ethan Loch perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No1 with the RSNO on 29 and 30 November 2024.