Nicholas McCarthy was born in 1989 and only began to play the piano at the late age of 14.

 

Born without his right hand, he is one of a few left-handed pianists worldwide and at present is the youngest left-handed pianist so far. At 17, Nicholas was awarded a place at the Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music in London where he studied with acclaimed concert pianist Lucy Parham.

After two years of studying at the Guildhall School of Music, Nicholas was awarded the Annual Piano Prize just before he left the school in 2008.
 

During this time he played numerous recitals throughout the U.K, venues including Fairfield Halls in Croydon and Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford. He has also won a number of prizes in competitions in London and throughout Britain.
Nicholas has been a regular participant at the Chetham’s International Festival and Summer School in Manchester.

His time spent at the festival has seen Nicholas take part in master classes with concert pianists such as Peter Donohoe, Martino Tirimo, Philippe Cassard and Margaret Fingerhut. All of whom expressed high acclaim for Nicholas' playing.

Since September 2008, Nicholas has been a student at the Royal College of Music in
London where he studies with concert pianist Ian Jones.

This year Nicholas has been featured on ITV's "This Morning" show with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby where he gave a live performance of Blumenfeld’s Etude in A Flat Major Op.36. Soon after his “This Morning” appearance Nicholas was featured on ITV's "London Tonight" show.