A YOUNG musician from Preston has come home for the holidays to play his first professional concert in Lancashire.

Sebastian Smallshaw, from Lightfoot Lane, Fulwood, started playing the piano just five years ago, and has now played with some of the country's top musicians, and won a scholarship to top school, Eton.

Now the 14-year-old is returning to the North West for a special Christmas concert.

Mum Yvonne said: "For a musician he started out very late in life. We didn't realise that he was musical, or even that he had an interest in it. Then we assumed that everybody who takes up music progresses as fast as he did. It all happened so quickly."

Sebastian started playing the piano and the cello when he was nine years old, and mastered the instruments in just a few years. Yvonne said: "He did grade eight in piano and celo at the same time when he was 12 years old so it didn't take him very long at all to get there." And it wasn't long before Sebastian's talent was spotted, and he was offered a scholarship to exclusive boy's school Eton.

Yvonne said: "The music facilities at Eton are amazing, and there are only ten or twelve scholarships a year."

Sebastian said: "I only started playing about five years ago, but I remember being interested in music from a very early age.

"Music is certainly something I would like to keep up with into the future. I would like to become a professional musician or something along those lines. I've had a great opportunity."

The Christmas concert takes place at Blackburn School of Music on Sunday, January 6. Tickets are available from 01254-582582.

Burnley opera singer Helena Kean, who organised the concert, said: "It's a chance for people to hear the stars of the future and support their local artists."