The British pianist Stephen Ridley, whose motto is “play the piano like you were playing rock-guitar”, will give a solo performance at Moscow House of Music on 9 July.

Born in the North of England, Stephen Ridley first took up the piano when he was six years old. In spite of their son’s obvious interest in music, his parents insisted on giving him an education focused on economics, and by the time he was 21 he was already working as a trader in the City of London.

In October 2011 the future musician came to the realisation that he couldn’t work in an office anymore, and so, remembering his childhood, he went and bought a piano, which he started to play right on the street in the centre of London. A month later he had already released his first album, Butterfly in a Hurricane.