What is Lucy, the blind and autistic 13-year-old winner of The Piano doing now? From performing at the Royal Albert Hall to being nominated at the BAFTA awards

Viewers of Channel 4’s The Piano were captivated by the triumphant performance at the show’s debut by then 13-year-old blind and autistic girl Lucy Illingworth.

The teenager from Halifax, West Yorkshire, brought viewers to tears with an awe-inspiring recital of Debussy’s Arabesque, prompting judges Lang Land and Mika to call her a ‘genius’.

A year later, the moment was nominated for a BAFTA, in a category that included scenes from Doctor Who, Succession and Happy Valley.

Since her stunning performance on the Channel 4 talent show, Lucy has performed to a packed Royal Albert Hall and left the King and Queen speechless at King Charles III’s coronation concert.

So where is Lucy now, as The Piano returns to find another hidden musical star?

On her way to the final of The Piano, Lucy wowed passers-by at Leeds train station with her rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in B flat minor, with the video receiving more than five million views online.

The pianist, born with cancerous tumors in her eyes and largely non-verbal, was put forward for the competition by her mother Candice because she wanted to show others how “amazing” she was and raise awareness of her condition.

Her performance landed her and the program in the Best Moment category at the BAFTA Television Awards, which take place on May 12.

Other nominees in the category include: David Beckham teasing Victoria about her working-class upbringing in their Netflix documentary, Ncuti Gatwa revealed as the 15th Doctor in Doctor Who, Catherine Cawood and Tommy Lee Royce’s final showdown on BBC One’s Happy Valley, Bill and Frank’s Story in Sky Atlantic series The Last Of Us and Logan Roy’s Death in Succession on the same channel.

Since recording the show, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, Lucy has learned more and more pieces by artists such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Stevie Wonder.

Less than two months after her victory was broadcast, Lucy stunned the newly crowned King and Queen, as well as tens of thousands of other spectators, at Charles’ Coronation concert in Windsor.

She was on the bill alongside world-famous artists such as Lionel Richie and Nicole Scherzinger.

A few months later, in October 2023, Lucy played the Royal Albert Hall, performing a repeat of her breathtaking Arabesque rendition of The Piano and performed Bach’s Prelude in C to a packed house at Classic FM Live.

The radio station’s post about the performance online received the highest viewership ever with more than 11 million views.

Lucy returned to the venue two months later to play the ITV Royal Variety gig.

That won’t be the talent’s last TV appearance as she will star in a 70-minute Channel 4 documentary, The Incredibly Talented Lucy.

The film focuses on Lucy and her music teacher Daniel Bath, who have been working together since the former was just three years old.

Lucy had started playing the keyboard earlier, at the age of two, and was taught by Daniel through the musical charity The Amber Trust.

Daniel previously recalled: ‘I first met Lucy in the ball pool at school and I couldn’t see anyone in the room at first. And then I saw this little hand sticking out of the ball pool.

‘And someone said, “Oh, that’s Lucy.” So I put a little keyboard under my hand, and the hand started playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star quite mutinously.

‘And I thought, “Here’s a girl for whom music is very important.”

“And it could be a way to unlock her language, her social skills and, most importantly, her zest for life.”

The family upgraded her keyboard and realized she was composing music in her head while sitting on the couch. She could also play music after listening to it just once.

“From a storybook with a piano on it, she started playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but it was perfect. It was one of those moments to hear that,” Lucy’s mother Candice recalled.

Daniel said the lessons weren’t easy at first as he had to figure out how to teach and make the most of her talent.

When he first started teaching, Lucy couldn’t listen to a piece for more than ten seconds before she became impatient and pushed his hands aside.

In her teens, he played the entire piece for Lucy before asking her to recite what she remembered.

He said, “You can’t teach Lucy anything, you can only guide her along the journey.”

They learn the hands separately, with Daniel saying that he sometimes has to physically pick up her hands so they can jump over each other.

The pair work together with Lucy placing her hand under Daniel’s while Daniel still plays and gently presses her fingers down before attempting the piece herself.

“She loves improvising, she loves playing jazz and the social interplay of that,” he added.

Lucy responds to the music with her body, especially her head and leg, which Daniel said sometimes requires him to hone her energy down to her fingertips.

This was evident in her unique, captivating performances on The Piano, which saw Lucy earn a BAFTA on Sunday 12 May.