The concert pianist and her biggest fan

A famous concert pianist travels the world giving magnificent performances which win her rapturous applause.  Tickets for her concerts sell out weeks in advance; critics fall over themselves with praise.  Sometimes she thunders away powerfully; at other times she plays quiet pieces with incredible gentleness and sensitivity. 

One night she is playing at a grand venue in New York for the great and the good of American society.  Tickets have been going for four times the face value on ebay.  It is a sole performance; she needs no other name on the programme in order to fill the house.

During a particularly quiet piece there is a strange noise in the auditorium.  A bizarre groaning sound, it seems.  At first, the concert-goers all think they are imagining it; but it persists.  Suddenly there is a loud shout, and another, followed by a desperate shushing.  People turn round, irritated, to see what the commotion is.  A young man with Down’s Syndrome is shouting and clapping, with a broad smile on his face, while an older woman whispers furiously in his ear for him to be quiet.  Eventually security guards arrive and escort them both to the door.

When the concert tour has finished, the pianist takes some time out, and drops off the radar for a while.  Months later, people are wondering on social media when she will schedule the next sellout tour.  She never does.  Instead she takes a job in a care home for older people.  She runs music therapy sessions for small groups of elderly people and their carers.  Many of these folks are so elderly that they barely seem to register the music.  Sometimes, rather than playing classic pieces, the pianist plays old music hall favourites, and people who can no longer remember their children’s names sing along to the familiar lyrics.  One elderly gentleman has advanced Alzheimer’s and can become hostile, aggressive, even violent; staff struggle to deal with his behaviour.  On those days the former concert pianist plays the piano quietly in the lobby, some soothing melody he may remember from his youth.  On good days, the music calms him.