Last night the 13-year-old blind piano player from West Yorkshire Lucy took home the crown of Channel 4’s The Piano in the final at the Royal Festival Hall.
Lucy went up against 25-year-old Jay from the Isle of Wight, 27-year-old Sean from Edinburgh and 26-year-old Danny from Manchester in the final to discover the UK’s best-undiscovered pianist.
The 13-year-old was crowned the star performer last night on the Channel 4 show presented by Claudia Winkleman alongside singer-songwriter Mika and Chinese pianist Lang Lang.
Lucy went into the final as the youngest contestant after being discovered playing her rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in B-Flat minor which left Mika and Lang Lang speechless with one bystander in the video seen crying at the beautiful song.
Watch the first performance at Leeds Train Station below:
Mika said upon hearing: “Magical things happen with music that are against all odds and all limitations. It’s astonishing when it happens. When it happened in Leeds, when Lucy performed, it was jaw-dropping.
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“It was the most humbling thing you could possibly see. We didn’t expect any of this. She’s not playing to be a superstar. She’s not playing to sell millions of records or get millions of streams.
“For a lot of people, the piano is their voice. It comes back to this really important thing. We make music to express what we cannot express with words. Whether we don’t have the words or we don’t know how to use them, it doesn’t matter.”
The finalist were all discovered after playing on public pianos across some of Britain’s busiest train stations and played a final concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall, which aired last night on Channel 4.
Lucy developed her skills through the musical charity The Amber Trust and her mother Candice reflected on Lucy’s experience saying: “It’s a once in a lifetime experience that neither of us will ever forget. It was literally life changing, these kind of events don’t usually happen in our lives.
“I was so impressed how Lang Lang and Mika were so good with Lucy, they were totally respectful of her needs. And to see that these two maestros were in awe of her made my heart burst with emotion.”
After last nights performance people took to Twitter to share their responses with one person writing: “Oh Lucy. Beautiful and so moving. Just incredible. #thepiano“
Another wrote: “Well that’s me in pieces. Rewinded it twice to watch. The fact Lucy even thanks Claudia + the other pianists mid-performance is beyond me. Adore she took a bow at the end. Lucy’s performance floored me.”
And a third wrote: “My TV moment of the year so far #ThePiano“. You can watch last night’s performance which was shared to Twitter below:
If you’d like to watch the final of The Piano: The Final you can watch it on All4 here.
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Feature Image Credit: Channel 4
