One-handed classical pianist Nicholas McCarthy offers inspiration with ‘unusual career choice’ that has taken him across the world

The 31-year-old says his childhood growing up in a town near London was normal, although school peers and passers-by would occasionally ridicule him over his birth defect.

The only child of parents without musical backgrounds who both worked in marketing, McCarthy says he did not even think of playing the piano or pursuing a career in music until he was 14.

He became captivated when a friend played German composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata in school.

Later that day he told his parents he wanted to become a concert pianist. They seemed a little surprised, he says, but supported him and bought him a digital piano so he could practise at home.