it would have been easy to write off Derek paravicini as a hopeless case he was born with the cards stacked against him blind severely brain damaged and profoundly autistic but behind derk's limitations lay a secret gift he was blessed with one of the greatest musical minds of his generation Derek is a classic study of disability and genius all bundled up in the one extraordinary package meet him and be amazed the human brain really does work in mysterious ways on stage Derek paravicini is a highly accomplished pianist and Entertainer watching him perform you wouldn't think he's
so severely disabled hey hi Derek how are you hi Liam very well thanks Liam but when the lights go out and we sit down for a chat der's limitations come as quite a shock which one is your right hand and your left hand and Derek what finger is this this one uh is that the little finger isn't it this is a man who can't dress or feed himself yet he can play any song he's ever heard [Music] brilliantly Derek is an autistic Sant he combines genius with blindness and severe mental [Music] disability why do you
think you are so good uh because I am am so good at music uh Liam I'm very good at music what really makes you happy Derek when you're playing um is it the uh the Clapping does that make me happy when I'm playing Liam is it an audience an audience yeah DK comes from a distinguished British family his great-grandfather was author Somerset m and his auntie is Camila Parker bals The Duchess of Cornwall he's been a surprise all the way through we didn't know when he was born that he was even blind Nick parachini says
his son set a hospital record for the smallest premy baby to survive he was just over 700 g how premature was he he was 26 weeks very young and he had a twin sister of course who didn't make it who died basically what had happened was he had too much oxygen to keep him alive in oldfashioned incubators which were hand operated and I think the technical phrase is retrolental hydrop plasia which wiped out his retina and part of his brain as a toddler Derek astounded his family by mimicking songs and bashing them out on a
toy keyboard so they went looking for piano teacher and found Adam ockleford at a school for the blind he was everywhere his hands were everywhere and His Hands reached over and grabbed at the piano and started playing all these Cascades of notes and I thought you he's he's just mad to be honest but then uh I suddenly realized in the middle of all this noise and karate chops and Chaos there was Don't Cry For Me Argentina he was clearly knew what he was up to I mean he taught himself completely note clusters Adams taught Derek
for 26 years now bit of a jazz chord seven notes he showed us how Derek can transform a simple tune hey now listen if I play you twinkle twinkle into a masterpiece J could harmonize it in the style of bark harmonize it in the style of bark Derek's [Music] turn somehow his brain is wired to remember remember tens of thousands of songs and he can adapt them any way you like last one yeah what about Miles Davis then miles DAV course cords now people call Derek the human iPod but I would say well no he's
not he's so much more than an iPod if he could just recreate what he heard he'd be quite boring actually cuz we've got recording equipment for that what makes Derek really special is that creativity chip Dave rub [Music] so he can take different Tunes uh and mix them up he can take different styles he can take different keys and they all blend together and every like every performance is unique and every performance is different it needs the patience of a saint to bring out the unate talent in autistic children today Adam teaching a 99-year-old called
Ry who's much like Derek was 20 years ago that's lovely R well the first challenge with Derek was uh letting me touch his piano cuz from the age of two it had been his piano and no one else was allowed to touch it just wait a minute as with Ry today if you uh if you trespassed on his property You' got a a flick or worse [Music] almost every day for 10 years Adam calmed Derek down and taught him technique how to get his fingers over the right notes at the right time and for me
the big moment came when he was um 10 and he played at the barbacan halls in London with a big Orchestra when the orchestra started and he started weaving in and out of it I mean his face just cracked into this huge SM and then when the audience applauded at the end he literally jumped up and just was trembling with excitement I I thought well he's got it hasn't he he's got that performing Instinct that performing Gene and and he was just amazing and from then on that's what he's wanted to do whenever you ask
him can I play the piano you know can I can I go to America can I go to Australia play the piano that's all he wants to do it's a beautiful spot here bit chilly though it's a lot warmer in Australia do I'd love to go would you yeah well I reckon I'd love to hear you at the opera house I'd love to play at the Opera House it would be good wouldn't it what would you play at the Opera House Phantom of the Opera brilliant today Derek's come to Historic ster house where the Polish
composer chopan came to play in the 19th century the same french-made piano remains in the same room today Derek can't comprehend who chopan was but he can play every note of his conura it makes people when they're learning a piece have a sheet of music and they play it a few times and get it wrong and get it right d doesn't need to do that he he can listen to a CD in the car or on an iPod a year later you can say to D do you remember whatever it's called and just come out
with it never having practiced it I've heard him playing pieces public in public pieces that he's never ever played before but he can play them fantastic we were told that um he could get to a certain level and then there would be a plateau and he wouldn't get beyond that Plateau but he h he goes on he gets he goes on and on and one of the things he loves doing Derek um he loves playing for other vulnerable people um old people in old people's homes for example Derek has done nothing but good ever since
he's been on this Earth psychologists think that music is one of the first things to develop in the brain and it's one of the last things to go and so very often with with people who have perhaps lost a lot of their faculties music can still an enormously powerful way of getting [Music] through I mean you see people who have a sort of mask you know they not and then suddenly they see sort of tears and it's just amaz absolutely or you see someone in a wheelchair who doesn't seem to move and their fingers start
tapping and it's just that and you know that they're connecting with Derek right now audiences everywhere are connecting with Derek today we're traveling from London to Scotland for a major concert at Edinburgh University can I play my favorite tune for you tonight Liam yeah what's that somewhere over the [Music] [Applause] [Music] rainbow at concerts Derek does what most musicians would dare without a rehearsal a person over there would you like a t he takes random requests does Derek know any Lady Gaga Paparazzi maybe [Music] no know Bohemian rapid Raspberry Beret something from by Isaac Shephard
another request he asked someone to select a song lady would you like another request please Lady Stevie Wonder You Are My Sunshine and then someone else suggests a key to play it in D flat sunshine of my lifeat in D [Music] flat derk's come a long long way in 28 years at the keyboard always with Adam ockleford by his [Music] side and as he continues to improve Adams come to realize Derek's problems at Birth were more more a gift than a handicap makes you wonder what what what he can't do it's so important never to
say never you know who knows who knows what's possible you can't educate Derek I was told when I started he cannot learn you cannot teach someone like Derek that was the that's what they told you that's what they told [Applause] you Well you certainly Pro that right well it's just nonsense isn't it it's clearly nonsense all right Adam all right yes fantastic [Applause] yeah coming up here he is congratulations thank you the wonderful proof I'm so lucky Australia's history making womb transplant it's just mindblowing I gave my uterus to Kirsty was a success now M's
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