[Dixielandjazz] The Mysterious Pianist in Britain

[Steve barbone]

John Farrell, who is this pianist? John Galt?

Maybe a visit and a rendition of "Maple Leaf Rag" would bring him out of his
shell. :-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve


A Silent Man Who Excels at the Piano Baffles Britain

NY Times - By ALAN COWELL May 18, 2005

LONDON, May 17 - The eyes seem soft and scared and peer from the photograph
of a blond man clutching what may be a musical score. Beyond that not too
much is known about this enigmatic figure who may be in his 20's or 30's and
may be English or not - save that he plays the piano with ease and
confidence.

The newspapers call him the Piano Man.

Since early April, medical authorities in southeast England have been caring
for a man around six feet tall who was found wandering on a beach in damp
clothes on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. He was wearing a dark suit - some
say a tuxedo - and a white shirt. The labels had been cut from his clothes
so they offered no clues to his identity, according to Adrian Lowther, a
spokesman for the hospital authority caring for the mysterious man.

He may, some newspapers have speculated, be an asylum seeker who had removed
all forms of identity; he may be a man suffering from amnesia after a
terrible shock of some kind - a loss, a death. But none of that can be
confirmed because he has not spoken or communicated in words - spoken or
written - since he was found.

All that is known, Mr. Lowther said on Tuesday, is that when the people who
cared for him gave him a pencil and paper in early April, he drew a grand
piano casting a deep shadow. And when they took him to a piano in a hospital
chapel he was transformed, playing fluently in what seemed a classical
style.

"The only people who have heard him play are a select number of people
caring for him and they are not classical music experts," Mr. Lowther said,
commenting on reports in British newspapers that the man played a range of
music from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" to Lennon and McCartney.

Some people, thus, have likened his experience to that of the pianist David
Helfgott, portrayed in the 1996 movie "Shine" as interrupted by mental
illness.

He is, Mr. Lowther said, shy in the extreme. "If you went into a room with
him he would shy away," he said. "It is likely that he would hide under the
covers. He will not engage with anyone."

Interpreters fluent in Latvian, Polish and Lithuanian have visited him
without eliciting a response. His photograph has been circulated by
newspapers in Sweden. Almost 400 people have contacted a help line for
missing people (+44-500-700-700) but none have provided a definitive
identity.

There is, of course, the delicate question of whether the man is a bona fide
patient, although that issue may arise in the future. "We have got nothing
to suggest" that he is not a genuine case, Mr. Lowther said. "And we have a
duty of care to look after him until something suggests otherwise."

It is possible, too, that the man may never be identified.

Indeed, said Michael Camp, a social worker assigned to the man, "if nobody
can name this guy, then I don't see how we can possibly find out" who he
really is.