A former winner of Ongar Music Club’s Essex Young Musician of the Year award is set to be the first performer in a new series of monthly concerts.

Cellist Gregory Walmsley, will take stage at Music and Afternoon Tea concerts entitled 'Soundbites!' at the Budworth Hall, High Street, Ongar.

An international chamber musician, Mr Walmsley is member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra who began playing the cello at the age of ten.

He was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where we won various awards including the John Barbirolli Cello Prize.

From there he continued his studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey with the Beaux Arts Trio cellist Bernard Greenhouse.

In 1993, he gave his debut recital at the Wigmore Hall in London and spent ten years in Seville at The Maestranza Opera House.

The cellist then returned to join the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003, where he combines his love of solo recitals, chamber music, symphonic and operatic repertoire worldwide.

Ongar Music Club's first 'Soundbites!' will be on Tuesday, June 25, at 1.30pm, with concerts being held on the last Tuesday of every month at the Budworth Hall from September onwards.