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When Nicholas McCarthy expressed a wish to become a concert pianist, there were experts who
advised him to abandon it.
After all, they reasoned. Few young musicians, however talented, make the grade[成功] when they have two hands, and Nicholas was born with only one.
Yet he has never allowed this obstacle to
confine[限制] his dreams.
Although it was said that he would never be able to study the piano, he won a place at the Royal
College of Music in London.
The RCM has an international reputation[名声] for excellence. Nicholas is now in the second year of his four-year music degree course there.
He is also building a reputation as an
accomplished[有成就的] performer, and one of the few classical musicians in the world to play the piano with only his left hand.
His story is both incredible and inspiring.
Unlike many musical prodigies[神童] whose talents are nurtured from a young age, Nicholas, now 20, started to play the piano only six years ago.
He remembers the revelation[启示]: “I was listening
to one of my friends playing a Beethoven piano
sonata[奏鸣曲], and I was transfixed[使呆住]. It struck me then – I could do that! No problem at all.”
There was neither a moment of self-doubt, nor a second’s concern that his lack of a hand could prove an impediment[妨碍]. Nicholas was born with a
shortened right arm. He refers to it as his “little arm.”
Doctors have never been able to explain why he has no right hand; neither does he waste time
agonising[感到痛苦] over the cause of his disability.
“We were never given a reason, but it doesn’t
really matter,” he says. “No explanation is going to give me a hand, so it’s never bothered me. I thank my Mum and Dad for my attitude. They’ve always said: ‘You can do whatever you want, Nick.’ I just have to think out of the box[破格思维] sometimes.”
So, Nicholas began to teach himself to play with a cheap electric keyboard his parents had bought him for his 14th birthday.
“I had never experienced anything that came so naturally,” he recalls. “I found I could play a one-note melody with my little arm – although anything with big chords[和弦] was out of the question. I practised for hours and hours. Time just disappeared.
“I vaguely[模糊地] knew how to read the notes from my music lessons at school, but I played a lot by ear at first.
“One day I had the volume quite loud and Dad called up: ‘Turn off the stereo, Nick.’ and I said: ‘It’s not the stereo. It’s me on the keyboard.’ It was then that I asked my parents for piano lessons.”
A young music teacher called at the family home, but she didn’t know that Nicholas had a disability.
“When I rang her up, I forgot to say I only have one hand,” says Nicholas.
“She was so surprised when I opened the door. But I played Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata for her, and when I finished she had tears rolling down her face.
“She said: ‘That’s absolutely amazing.’ And she agreed to teach me.”
Unsurprisingly, Nicholas stormed through his piano
grades, accruing[积累] a batch of distinctions[级别].
Soon, his first tutor realised that Nicholas’s talents had outstripped[超过] her ability to teach him. He had to seek a new teacher.
He applied to[申请] the Junior Guildhall[市政厅], the Saturday school of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and was awarded a place to have weekly lessons with pianist Lucy Parham.
While Nicholas wanted to continue to play his two-handed repertoire[(可演出的)曲目], using his “little arm” as a digit[手指], Lucy had more ambitious plans for him.
“Lucy told me: ‘We don’t want you to play from your old repertoire any more. We want you to play only with your left hand.’
“She told me there is a wealth of wonderful music out there, written for the left hand. Most famous is Ravel’s Piano Concerto[协奏曲] in D.
“She showed me Nocturne[夜曲] by the Russian Romantic Scriabin. I’d never seen music so difficult before. I thought it was out of my league[超过某人能力范围].
“I was upset too, because I adored the Mozart pieces I’d been playing. I’d have to wave goodbye to him, Bach and Beethoven.
“But Lucy said she wouldn’t let me play two-
handed pieces. She said I’d be viewed as a freak show[畸形秀]. It was true; I’d make a quick
buck[容易到手的钱], get some attention, then that would be it.
“I finally agreed to play only with my left hand.
“Lucy said: ‘You’ll have to work your socks
off[很努力地工作],’ but I was prepared to do that. Sometimes,
I came out of her lessons sobbing[呜咽] from the
physical and mental effort of playing such challenging pieces.”
By then, Nicholas had an upright piano at home. He practised on it for six hours a day.
As Nicholas challenged himself to master his new
repertoire, a fresh ambition formed in his mind. He decided to win a place at the Royal College of Music to study full time; his long-term aim is to become a concert pianist.
He knew it was an elevated[使提升] goal – he would be competing with (two-handed) prodigies who had been
tutored at specialist music schools since infancy[幼年].
He decided to take a gap year and to fill each day with practice – and his efforts were richly rewarded.
After attending auditions, three specialist music
colleges offered him places. But his aim was the RCM. At his audition, he played Scriabin’s Prelude and Nocturne, Opus 9. His performance impressed the adjudicators[评判员].
“When the acceptance letter for the RCM arrived, the first word ‘Congratulations’ was spelled out in bold letters, so I didn’t have to read on to know I’d won a place,” he recalls.
Since then, he has given public performances to
rapturous[着迷的] receptions.
“People are curious,” he says. “They want to see me because I’m one-handed, and I don’t mind that. Some two-handed pianists play the left-handed pieces just to show off,” he says. But Nicholas has appropriated[占用] the repertoire as his own.
“I say: ‘Why would you pick someone with both hands to play them when you’ve got me with my one hand?’”
当尼古拉斯·麦卡锡说他想成为钢琴演奏家时,一些专家建议他还是放弃为好。
他们这么说,终究是有道理的。毕竟在双手健全的年轻音乐家里面,无论他们多有才华,也只有少数人能够成功,何况尼古拉斯生来只有一只手。
然而,他从来没有让这种障碍禁锢自己的梦想。
虽然人们认为他永远无法学习钢琴,但他在伦敦皇家音乐学院赢得了
一席之地。
伦敦皇家音乐学院素来以其出类拔萃的教学享誉国际。现在,尼古拉斯正在那里度过其四年音乐课程的第二年。
与此同时,他渐渐成长为一名出色的演奏者——并且是世界上少数仅用左手弹奏钢琴的古典音乐家。
他的故事令人难以置信,而又倍感
鼓舞。
很多音乐神童的才华都是从小培养起来的,然而尼古拉斯与他们不一样。现年20岁的他在六年前才开始学弹钢琴。
他对当时受启发的一刻记忆犹新:“当时我在听朋友弹一首贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲,我呆住了,心里忽地一震——我也能做到!没问题。”
至于少了一只手可能会成为一道障碍这回事,尼古拉斯从来没有对此产生过丝毫疑虑。他出生时右手只有一截很短的手臂,他管它叫“小手臂”。
医生们无法解释他为什么没有右手,他也从来不浪费时间为造成这种残缺的原因而烦恼。
“从来没有人告诉过我们任何原因,但那并不重要,”他说。“再多的解释也不能为我换来一只手,所以我从不为此烦恼。我很感谢父母为我培养起了这样的态度。他们总是说:‘尼克,你可以做到你想做的任何事情。’有时候,我只需要换一个思路便可以了。”
于是,尼古拉斯开始用一台廉价电子琴自学起来,那是父母送给他的14岁生日礼物。
“我从没体验过如此自然而然的事情,”他回忆道。“我发现可以用我的小手臂弹奏单音符的旋律,虽然需要和弦的旋律是肯定办不到的。我孜孜不倦地练习,时间不知不觉地悄悄流逝。
“从学校的音乐课上,我基本学会怎样看乐谱,但我最初练习时大多靠耳朵听。
“有一天,我把音量调得很高,爸爸喊道:‘尼克,把音响关了。’我说:‘没有开音响,是我在弹琴。’就是在那时,我要求父母让我上钢琴课。”
一位年轻的音乐老师到他们家应聘,但她并不知道尼古拉斯身患残疾。
“我打电话给她时,忘了告诉她我只有一只手,”尼古拉斯说。
“我开门的时候,她吓了一跳。但是后来我给她演奏了贝多芬的《月光奏鸣曲》。弹完的时候,眼泪从她的脸颊上滑落下来。
“她说:‘太不可思议了。’她同意教我。”
不出所料,尼古拉斯的钢琴水平突飞猛进,过了很多级。
他的第一任老师很快便意识到他的才华已经超出了她所能教授的范围,他需要找一位新老师。
他向伦敦市政厅音乐戏剧学院每逢周六开设的补课班——青年市政厅学院递交了申请,并得到了每周跟随钢琴家露茜·帕勒姆学习的机会。
尼古拉斯把他的小手臂当做一根手指,继续弹奏以往的双手乐章,然而露茜为他制定了更加有雄心的计划。
“露茜对我说:‘我们不希望你继续弹奏以前的乐曲。我们希望你只用左手
演奏。’
“她说,世界上还有很多美妙的音乐是为左手而写的,其中最有名的是拉威尔的《D大调钢琴协奏曲》。
“她向我展示了俄罗斯浪漫主义音乐家斯克里亚宾的《夜曲》。我从来没有见过这么难的音乐,我觉得它远远超出我的能力范围。
“我还感到有点难过,因为我很喜欢当时正在练习的莫扎特的作品。从此我不得不向莫扎特、巴赫和贝多芬挥手作别了。
“但是露茜说她不会让我演奏为双手而写的乐曲,那会让我的演奏被视为一种‘畸形秀’。确实如此。虽然那样我能很快地大赚一笔,得到一些关注,但仅此而已。
“最后,我同意只用左手演奏。
“露茜说:‘你必须为此付出很大努力。’但我已经做好了那样的准备。有时上完她的课出来,我全身心都因为弹奏如此高难度的曲子而承受了巨大的痛苦,让我忍不住哭了出来。”
此时,尼古拉斯家里已经有一台直立式钢琴,他每天会在这台钢琴上练习六个小时。
在挑战自己去学习这些新乐曲的同时,他的心里也浮现出一个新的想法。他决定要在皇家音乐学院进行全日制学习,以成为一位钢琴演奏家为终极目标。
他知道那是一个层次更高的目标——那意味着他要和许多从小就在专业音乐院校接受学习(而且双手健全)的音乐神童同台竞技。
因此,他决定休学一年,每天都用来练习。他的艰苦努力终于收到了丰厚的回报。
参加过考试后,有三家专业音乐学院向他提供学位,但他的目标是皇家音乐学院。在考试中,他演奏了斯克里亚宾的《第9号前奏曲和夜曲》,他的表演给评分员留下了深刻的印象。
“在收到皇家音乐学院的录取通知书时,第一个词——用黑体字打印的‘祝贺’跃然入目,所以我不必读完整封信便知道自己被录取了,”他回忆道。
从那时起,他开始公开表演,好评如潮。
“人们很好奇,”他说。“他们很想看我如何表演,因为我只有一只手,我并不介意。有些双手健全的钢琴家只是为了炫耀技巧而演奏专门为左手而写的乐曲,”他说。但尼古拉斯把这些乐曲变成了自己的专属作品。
“我说:‘既然有我这样只有一只手的人,为什么还要让双手健全的人来演奏这些乐曲呢?”
advised him to abandon it.
After all, they reasoned. Few young musicians, however talented, make the grade[成功] when they have two hands, and Nicholas was born with only one.
Yet he has never allowed this obstacle to
confine[限制] his dreams.
Although it was said that he would never be able to study the piano, he won a place at the Royal
College of Music in London.
The RCM has an international reputation[名声] for excellence. Nicholas is now in the second year of his four-year music degree course there.
He is also building a reputation as an
accomplished[有成就的] performer, and one of the few classical musicians in the world to play the piano with only his left hand.
His story is both incredible and inspiring.
Unlike many musical prodigies[神童] whose talents are nurtured from a young age, Nicholas, now 20, started to play the piano only six years ago.
He remembers the revelation[启示]: “I was listening
to one of my friends playing a Beethoven piano
sonata[奏鸣曲], and I was transfixed[使呆住]. It struck me then – I could do that! No problem at all.”
There was neither a moment of self-doubt, nor a second’s concern that his lack of a hand could prove an impediment[妨碍]. Nicholas was born with a
shortened right arm. He refers to it as his “little arm.”
Doctors have never been able to explain why he has no right hand; neither does he waste time
agonising[感到痛苦] over the cause of his disability.
“We were never given a reason, but it doesn’t
really matter,” he says. “No explanation is going to give me a hand, so it’s never bothered me. I thank my Mum and Dad for my attitude. They’ve always said: ‘You can do whatever you want, Nick.’ I just have to think out of the box[破格思维] sometimes.”
So, Nicholas began to teach himself to play with a cheap electric keyboard his parents had bought him for his 14th birthday.
“I had never experienced anything that came so naturally,” he recalls. “I found I could play a one-note melody with my little arm – although anything with big chords[和弦] was out of the question. I practised for hours and hours. Time just disappeared.
“I vaguely[模糊地] knew how to read the notes from my music lessons at school, but I played a lot by ear at first.
“One day I had the volume quite loud and Dad called up: ‘Turn off the stereo, Nick.’ and I said: ‘It’s not the stereo. It’s me on the keyboard.’ It was then that I asked my parents for piano lessons.”
A young music teacher called at the family home, but she didn’t know that Nicholas had a disability.
“When I rang her up, I forgot to say I only have one hand,” says Nicholas.
“She was so surprised when I opened the door. But I played Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata for her, and when I finished she had tears rolling down her face.
“She said: ‘That’s absolutely amazing.’ And she agreed to teach me.”
Unsurprisingly, Nicholas stormed through his piano
grades, accruing[积累] a batch of distinctions[级别].
Soon, his first tutor realised that Nicholas’s talents had outstripped[超过] her ability to teach him. He had to seek a new teacher.
He applied to[申请] the Junior Guildhall[市政厅], the Saturday school of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and was awarded a place to have weekly lessons with pianist Lucy Parham.
While Nicholas wanted to continue to play his two-handed repertoire[(可演出的)曲目], using his “little arm” as a digit[手指], Lucy had more ambitious plans for him.
“Lucy told me: ‘We don’t want you to play from your old repertoire any more. We want you to play only with your left hand.’
“She told me there is a wealth of wonderful music out there, written for the left hand. Most famous is Ravel’s Piano Concerto[协奏曲] in D.
“She showed me Nocturne[夜曲] by the Russian Romantic Scriabin. I’d never seen music so difficult before. I thought it was out of my league[超过某人能力范围].
“I was upset too, because I adored the Mozart pieces I’d been playing. I’d have to wave goodbye to him, Bach and Beethoven.
“But Lucy said she wouldn’t let me play two-
handed pieces. She said I’d be viewed as a freak show[畸形秀]. It was true; I’d make a quick
buck[容易到手的钱], get some attention, then that would be it.
“I finally agreed to play only with my left hand.
“Lucy said: ‘You’ll have to work your socks
off[很努力地工作],’ but I was prepared to do that. Sometimes,
I came out of her lessons sobbing[呜咽] from the
physical and mental effort of playing such challenging pieces.”
By then, Nicholas had an upright piano at home. He practised on it for six hours a day.
As Nicholas challenged himself to master his new
repertoire, a fresh ambition formed in his mind. He decided to win a place at the Royal College of Music to study full time; his long-term aim is to become a concert pianist.
He knew it was an elevated[使提升] goal – he would be competing with (two-handed) prodigies who had been
tutored at specialist music schools since infancy[幼年].
He decided to take a gap year and to fill each day with practice – and his efforts were richly rewarded.
After attending auditions, three specialist music
colleges offered him places. But his aim was the RCM. At his audition, he played Scriabin’s Prelude and Nocturne, Opus 9. His performance impressed the adjudicators[评判员].
“When the acceptance letter for the RCM arrived, the first word ‘Congratulations’ was spelled out in bold letters, so I didn’t have to read on to know I’d won a place,” he recalls.
Since then, he has given public performances to
rapturous[着迷的] receptions.
“People are curious,” he says. “They want to see me because I’m one-handed, and I don’t mind that. Some two-handed pianists play the left-handed pieces just to show off,” he says. But Nicholas has appropriated[占用] the repertoire as his own.
“I say: ‘Why would you pick someone with both hands to play them when you’ve got me with my one hand?’”
当尼古拉斯·麦卡锡说他想成为钢琴演奏家时,一些专家建议他还是放弃为好。
他们这么说,终究是有道理的。毕竟在双手健全的年轻音乐家里面,无论他们多有才华,也只有少数人能够成功,何况尼古拉斯生来只有一只手。
然而,他从来没有让这种障碍禁锢自己的梦想。
虽然人们认为他永远无法学习钢琴,但他在伦敦皇家音乐学院赢得了
一席之地。
伦敦皇家音乐学院素来以其出类拔萃的教学享誉国际。现在,尼古拉斯正在那里度过其四年音乐课程的第二年。
与此同时,他渐渐成长为一名出色的演奏者——并且是世界上少数仅用左手弹奏钢琴的古典音乐家。
他的故事令人难以置信,而又倍感
鼓舞。
很多音乐神童的才华都是从小培养起来的,然而尼古拉斯与他们不一样。现年20岁的他在六年前才开始学弹钢琴。
他对当时受启发的一刻记忆犹新:“当时我在听朋友弹一首贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲,我呆住了,心里忽地一震——我也能做到!没问题。”
至于少了一只手可能会成为一道障碍这回事,尼古拉斯从来没有对此产生过丝毫疑虑。他出生时右手只有一截很短的手臂,他管它叫“小手臂”。
医生们无法解释他为什么没有右手,他也从来不浪费时间为造成这种残缺的原因而烦恼。
“从来没有人告诉过我们任何原因,但那并不重要,”他说。“再多的解释也不能为我换来一只手,所以我从不为此烦恼。我很感谢父母为我培养起了这样的态度。他们总是说:‘尼克,你可以做到你想做的任何事情。’有时候,我只需要换一个思路便可以了。”
于是,尼古拉斯开始用一台廉价电子琴自学起来,那是父母送给他的14岁生日礼物。
“我从没体验过如此自然而然的事情,”他回忆道。“我发现可以用我的小手臂弹奏单音符的旋律,虽然需要和弦的旋律是肯定办不到的。我孜孜不倦地练习,时间不知不觉地悄悄流逝。
“从学校的音乐课上,我基本学会怎样看乐谱,但我最初练习时大多靠耳朵听。
“有一天,我把音量调得很高,爸爸喊道:‘尼克,把音响关了。’我说:‘没有开音响,是我在弹琴。’就是在那时,我要求父母让我上钢琴课。”
一位年轻的音乐老师到他们家应聘,但她并不知道尼古拉斯身患残疾。
“我打电话给她时,忘了告诉她我只有一只手,”尼古拉斯说。
“我开门的时候,她吓了一跳。但是后来我给她演奏了贝多芬的《月光奏鸣曲》。弹完的时候,眼泪从她的脸颊上滑落下来。
“她说:‘太不可思议了。’她同意教我。”
不出所料,尼古拉斯的钢琴水平突飞猛进,过了很多级。
他的第一任老师很快便意识到他的才华已经超出了她所能教授的范围,他需要找一位新老师。
他向伦敦市政厅音乐戏剧学院每逢周六开设的补课班——青年市政厅学院递交了申请,并得到了每周跟随钢琴家露茜·帕勒姆学习的机会。
尼古拉斯把他的小手臂当做一根手指,继续弹奏以往的双手乐章,然而露茜为他制定了更加有雄心的计划。
“露茜对我说:‘我们不希望你继续弹奏以前的乐曲。我们希望你只用左手
演奏。’
“她说,世界上还有很多美妙的音乐是为左手而写的,其中最有名的是拉威尔的《D大调钢琴协奏曲》。
“她向我展示了俄罗斯浪漫主义音乐家斯克里亚宾的《夜曲》。我从来没有见过这么难的音乐,我觉得它远远超出我的能力范围。
“我还感到有点难过,因为我很喜欢当时正在练习的莫扎特的作品。从此我不得不向莫扎特、巴赫和贝多芬挥手作别了。
“但是露茜说她不会让我演奏为双手而写的乐曲,那会让我的演奏被视为一种‘畸形秀’。确实如此。虽然那样我能很快地大赚一笔,得到一些关注,但仅此而已。
“最后,我同意只用左手演奏。
“露茜说:‘你必须为此付出很大努力。’但我已经做好了那样的准备。有时上完她的课出来,我全身心都因为弹奏如此高难度的曲子而承受了巨大的痛苦,让我忍不住哭了出来。”
此时,尼古拉斯家里已经有一台直立式钢琴,他每天会在这台钢琴上练习六个小时。
在挑战自己去学习这些新乐曲的同时,他的心里也浮现出一个新的想法。他决定要在皇家音乐学院进行全日制学习,以成为一位钢琴演奏家为终极目标。
他知道那是一个层次更高的目标——那意味着他要和许多从小就在专业音乐院校接受学习(而且双手健全)的音乐神童同台竞技。
因此,他决定休学一年,每天都用来练习。他的艰苦努力终于收到了丰厚的回报。
参加过考试后,有三家专业音乐学院向他提供学位,但他的目标是皇家音乐学院。在考试中,他演奏了斯克里亚宾的《第9号前奏曲和夜曲》,他的表演给评分员留下了深刻的印象。
“在收到皇家音乐学院的录取通知书时,第一个词——用黑体字打印的‘祝贺’跃然入目,所以我不必读完整封信便知道自己被录取了,”他回忆道。
从那时起,他开始公开表演,好评如潮。
“人们很好奇,”他说。“他们很想看我如何表演,因为我只有一只手,我并不介意。有些双手健全的钢琴家只是为了炫耀技巧而演奏专门为左手而写的乐曲,”他说。但尼古拉斯把这些乐曲变成了自己的专属作品。
“我说:‘既然有我这样只有一只手的人,为什么还要让双手健全的人来演奏这些乐曲呢?”