A student born without part of his arm will graduate from the Royal College of Music next week as the first in its history who only plays with his left hand.
Nicholas McCarthy, 23, from Epsom, has a growing reputation, with one concert at Vilhena Palace in Malta described by a critic as “sheer poetry”.
Mr McCarthy, pictured, did not start piano lessons until he was 14. His parents bought an electric keyboard and he taught himself, using his “little arm” for basic melodies.
He was turned down for a place at the Croydon Centre for Young Pianists after the principal asked: “How would you play scales for both hands?”
At 17, he went to Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where inspirational teacher Lucy Parham suggested he stop using his right arm — Prokofiev, Bartok and Ravel wrote work solely for the left.
He won the Guildhall piano prize and gained a place on the Royal College course. He said: “I hope to become an international concert pianist. I would like to be known as The Left-Handed Pianist.”
