Tom Hardaker

The Yorkshire Dales have produced a musical prodigy trained at an elite Russian conservatoire and he is back home from St Petersburg to lead a concert in Skipton later this month.

Thom Hardaker is still only 19 years old but after winning top prize at a Baltic music festival last year has been judged the best accordion player in Europe after advanced training at the Rimsky Korsakov Conservatoire.

Thom, from Sutton-in-Craven, started playing the accordion aged six and joined the Craven School of Music led by Harry Hincliffe. Says Harry: “He came to me and I played him a piece. He played it straight back to me. I knew then Thom was something special.”

Move forward a decade and Thom was leading the Craven Accordion Orchestra at a concert at Giggleswick School. It was to be a fateful performance. Unknown to Thom, he was being scouted by arguably the world's leading accordion expert – Professor Oleg Sharov of the Rimsky Korsakov Conservatoire of Music.

Thom said: “I had no idea this man was there. But he came up to me before the show and Harry introduced us. We played together a bit and talked about what I was going to play. We played the concert and then he asked me if I wanted to go to Russia with him to study. I suppose he's my Simon Cowell.”

Thom will be playing a wide range of music from traditional accordion musettes and polkas to Bach and Scarlatti as well as the traditional Russian folk music he has learned in the East at the Skipton concert on July 17. Tickets £6 or £4 for concessions. For more information, email cravenschoolofmusic@hotmail.co.uk