#174: The One-Handed Concert Pianist, Nicholas McCarthy

Nicholas McCarthy (@NMcCarthyPiano) was born in 1989 without his right hand and only started to play the piano at the age of 14.

He was told he would never succeed as a concert pianist.

Fortunately, the doubters were wrong. His graduation from the prestigious Royal College of Music in London in 2012 appeared in press around the world, as he became the only one-handed pianist to graduate from the Royal College of Music in its 130-year history.

Nicholas has now performed extensively throughout the world, including the U.K., U.S., South Africa, South Korea, Japan, Malta, and Kazakhstan. He has also played alongside Coldplay and given a rendition of the Paralympic Anthem in front of an audience of 86,000 people and half a billion worldwide viewers.

His first album, entitled Solo (Warner Music) features 17 stunning pieces of left-hand repertoire spanning three centuries and has been released around the world to great acclaim.

This was a blast of an interview, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks for listening.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast.

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