Single-minded pianist paralysed by tumour becomes left-hand virtuoso

A GIFTED music student, who was partly paralysed by a brain tumour and multiple sclerosis, has told how he learned to master the piano again using only his left hand.

Paul Murray revealed that he had been helped on the road to his remarkable recovery by Dr Paul Mealor – the university music teacher who composed Wherever You Are, the Military Wives’ Christmas number one – whose choral work was commissioned for last year’s Royal Wedding.

The Aberdeen University student’s single-handed mastery of the instrument is now to be featured in a Channel 4 documentary later this year on the composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin, in which Mr Murray meets the challenge of playing one of Chopin’s most complex works.

As a teenager in North Lanarkshire, Mr Murray was a prodigy, sailing through exams that usually take years of formal training to pass within months of taking up the piano.

But, at the age of 17, in his first year at Aberdeen University, the former Bellshill Academy pupil was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Remarkably, five years after the diagnosis, Mr Murray has reworked Chopin’s Ballade Number One so that he can continue to perform it using just his left hand – an idea first suggested by Dr Mealor.

Mr Murray had begun to experience crippling headaches after his diagnosis and, when he returned to Glasgow for a hospital appointment, was told he needed immediate surgery.

He spent four months in the Southern General Hospital learning how to walk and talk again. But he said it was his passion for music, and the support of his family, that helped pull him through.

“I was told it would take two-and-a--half years’ recovery time but I’m always very positive with these things and I was determined to get back to university and continue my studies,” he said. “Classical music was not something I grew up with – it was almost as if I woke up one day and decided this was what I wanted to do – and I wasn’t prepared to let my illness take that away from me. I felt I was very lucky to be here and wanted to make the most of my life.”

Because of his remarkable progress Mr Murray, now 21, returned to university the following year to restart his studies again.

But the brain tumour had affected the right side of his body, leaving him partially paralysed and unable to play the piano as he had before.

He said: “My hand doesn’t work like it used to and when I returned to the university I met with one of my tutors – Paul Mealor – who suggested I try left-hand repertoire.

“This is some of the most difficult music ever written and is not diminished in any way by only one hand as movement and speed are always constant.

“I worked on as much left-hand repertoire as I could and I performed at a concert where I was given a standing ovation and I thought at that point ‘I’m back’. I’m now building up my confidence again when it comes to performance and I’m working with other musicians who also use left hand repertoire.”

Dr David Smith, the head of music at the university of Aberdeen, hailed Mr Murray as a “truly inspirational student, totally dedicated to his studies.”

He said: “His resilience is astounding. What amazes me is how his sheer musicality emerges. When examining second-year performance, we were moved to tears by Paul’s playing – not something that happens often in an exam situation.”