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Viewers of Channel 4’s music competition The Piano have praised the man behind 13-year-old blind pianist Lucy after she wowed audiences with her performance.
The young pianist, who left people in awe last week when a preview of her performance at Birmingham’s New Street station went viral online, appeared on the show which aired last night at 9pm, directed by her teacher piano Daniel Bath.
As she sat down to play Chopin’s Opus 9 No. 1, Lucy was guided by Daniel, who helped her onto the piano stool and helped her find the keys, before enchanting the audience with her performance.
And fans of the neurodiverse pianist learned a bit more about her history during the episode when Daniel explained how she teaches her.
After seeing the close bond between teacher and student, viewers took to Twitter to praise Daniel, who works with The Amber Trust, as ‘incredible’.
Viewers of Channel 4’s talent show The Piano took to Twitter to praise Daniel Bath, the piano teacher for blind student Lucy, 13, who wowed crowds at Birmingham New Street station with his interpretation of Chopin’s Opus 9 Number 1. In a segment on Lucy’s life, the teacher revealed that he trains her by allowing her hands to follow his along the keys.
At the beginning of the clip, Lucy’s mother, Candice, tells host Claudia Winkleman that her daughter was diagnosed with cancerous eye tumors shortly after birth.
In a cropped clip, the mother recalls: “We were in a cancer bubble for a long time, which was horrible, I’m not going to lie.” It was really bad.
She added that watching her young daughter receive treatment was difficult, as Lucy fought the doctors and nurses who had to ‘hold [her] down’ to administer the medicine.’
In the clip, Daniel helps Lucy up the platform step towards the piano and sits her down, before moving his hands to the keys.
The footage shows Daniel and Lucy in a piano lesson where she follows his fingers across the keys to understand how to play.
Elsewhere in the episode, Lucy’s mother Candice reveals that her daughter learned to play the piano after being given a keyboard when she was ‘very little’ and brought to the hospital.
‘She cried and kicked and screamed. She had never seen Lucy cry as much as she did,” says Candice.
She further explains that in addition to having no vision at all, Lucy has a duplication of chromosome 16 (which Candice also carries) and is globally developmentally delayed, meaning she has difficulties with communication.
However, Candice reveals that, when her daughter was “very little”, she was given a “little keyboard” which she took to the hospital with her.
“It played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star perfectly,” says Candice, adding that it caught the attention of a nurse who initially thought the tune was pre-recorded.
However, when the nurse realized that Lucy had played the tune on her own, she said that it was “spectacular”. Thereafter, the pianist prodigy began working with Daniel at The Amber Trust, a charity that supports blind musicians.
After learning more about Lucy’s story in last night’s episode, viewers took to Twitter to praise Daniel’s “incredible” teaching skills.
Speaking to the camera, Daniel explains: “Our lessons are not like normal piano lessons.
‘Because [Lucy] I can’t see what’s going on, I started using a method to play the piano and she would put her hands on top of mine so she could feel which fingers were doing what.’
Daniel adds, “I’ve never met anyone in my career who has the same depth of understanding of music.” [as Lucy].
“Music is the way you communicate and that’s how you make your place in the world.”
Daniel then leads Lucy to the piano and sits her on the stool to play the Chopin piece, before she stuns the crowd.
Lots of people record Lucy on their phones as she plays the perfect tune. Meanwhile, the show’s judges, Mika and Lang Lang, who are watching the clip in a separate room, look visibly moved and watch the performance with their mouths open.
At one point, Mika puts her hand to her mouth and seems to hold back tears.
Says Lang: ‘It’s amazing that she can play this piece. How – how does she study? I mean, it’s amazing.
As Lucy finishes the piece and the crowd applauds her, Lang can be heard saying, ‘Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, this is… this is impossible.
After her performance, the judges are speechless and the crowd that Lucy has gathered at the station erupts in applause.
After learning more about Lucy’s background in the episode, viewers took to Twitter to praise their piano teacher.
One person wrote: ‘Wow! Lucy and Daniel at The Piano were amazing. So emotional and what a wonderful organization The Amber Trust is. Bravo!’
Another tweeted directly to Daniel to say: ‘You are an absolutely amazing person, what a teacher!’
A viewer who was impressed by the work of the Amber Trust added: ‘What amazing things The Amber Trust and Daniel Bath are doing for neurodiverse children. Tonight’s piano with Lucy playing Chopin is like nothing I’ve ever seen/heard.