The quest is on for the next keyboard virtuoso as The Piano returns to Channel 4.
Back for a third series with Claudia Winkleman presenting and singer/songwriters Mika and Jon Batiste as judges and mentors, The Piano began the pursuit for an extraordinary amateur pianist at London’s Liverpool Street Station in Sunday night’s show.
Over the course of seven episodes, the team will travel to rail stations and an airport across the UK looking for top talent.
Jon Batiste replaces Chinese pianist Lang Lang, who was judge and mentor for the first two series.
Ian Katz, Channel 4’s chief creative officer said: “After helping to establish The Piano in just two series as one of the country’s best loved and most joyous TV shows, Lang Lang leaves big shoes to fill but if anyone can fill them it is Jon Batiste, an astonishing musician as accomplished playing a Beethoven concerto as creating hits with Beyoncé.
“Along with Mika and Claudia, Jon Batiste will trawl the nation’s train stations – and for the first time an airport – looking for the remarkable amateur pianists who prove that musical magic can be found in the most surprising places.”
The programme has already discovered two amazing amateur pianists in the previous two series who have gone on to greater things.
Lucy Illingworth won the first series in 2023 and Brad Kella was the show’s 2024 winner.
We take a look at what they have done since their victories.
Lucy Illingworth performing at the Coronation Concert in Windsor (Photo: Chris Jackson//AFP)
Lucy Illingworth stole the hearts of viewers when she won the show at the age of just 13.
Her performance at Leeds train station stopped people in their tracks as she played her rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in B-flat minor.
The teenager, who is blind and neurodivergent, went on to be crowned the winner of the competition, after her performance of Claude Debussy’s Arabesque No 1 at the Royal Festival Hall in the final.
As a result, Lucy, who is in remission from bilateral retinablastoma, was invited to perform at the King’s Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle in May 2023, where she played Bach’s Prelude in C in front of 18 million people.
Lucy Illingworth at the 2024 Baftas in May 2024 (Photo: Jeff Spicer/Bafta/Getty)In October 2023, she performed Arabesque No 1 and Prelude in C at a Classic FM Live concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
She also played at ITV’s Royal Variety at the Royal Albert Hall later the same year.
Since then, she has become an international ambassador for the The Lang Lang International Music Foundation, alongside the likes of Jools Holland, Sting and Guy Chambers.
Last year, Lucy was Bafta nominated for the Most Memorable TV Moment for her performance on The Piano.
She also starred in a Channel 4 documentary about her life and her musical talent – The Incredibly Talented Lucy.
And at the end of last year, the teen, from Brighouse, West Yorkshire, released her first album entitled Lucy.
She embarks on a series of tour dates later this summer playing London Union Chapel and Leeds City Varieties Music Hall.
What has Brad Kella done since winning The Piano?
Brad Kella on the second series of ‘The Piano’ (Photo: Nic Serpell-Rand /Channel 4/Love Productions)Brad Kella was last year’s unexpected victor of The Piano, after winning both the Liverpool and then the Manchester heats of the competition.
The 23-year-old from Bootle, who now lives in Fazakerley, was spotted playing on a public piano in a shopping centre in his home city of Liverpool and invited to audition for the Channel 4 show.
He played one of his own compositions for The Piano audition and made it through.
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Brought up in foster care, Kella started learning to pay piano at the age of seven when he begged his foster parents to buy him a keyboard.
Self-taught, he would spend hours playing the keyboard as a child and eventually won a place at the Liverpool School of Performing Arts (Lipa).
He credits his success to his foster parents Eve and Frank Kilmartin.
Perfoming in the show’s final, he said: “I got put in foster care.
“But I had the best foster parents in the whole world.
“And they gave me the capability to dream, to believe that anything was actually possible and there’s a stigma with kids in foster care and we genuinely get seen as just a number.
“I want to show people what a number can do.”
Brad Kella is now signed to Liverpool-based label Modern Sky (Photo: John Johnson/PA)After winning the 2024 series, Kella made his debut at the Royal Albert Hall on 21 October last year in a concert for Classic FM Live and performed a sell-out concert at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall the following month.
He returned to The Piano for a Christmas special at Battersea Power Station in December 2024 and like his fellow winner Lucy, he has become an ambassador for the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.
Now signed to Liverpool record label Modern Sky, he launched his debut album last month playing tracks on the last piano John Lennon used at The Beatles Story in Liverpool.
After the album’s release, Kella will be supporting Gary Barlow on his UK tour throughout April, May and June this year.
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